The biggest names, Google n-grams, and SF author popularity among non-SF readers

[Brian G Turner]

Using the middle initial on published works is an American thing? Brian G. Turner, is this true?

In my case, having a common name already shared with a few minor celebrities means I needed to make my name unique to me. I figured GRRM did the same, so as not to be confused with the famous producer of the Beatles, George Martin.

 

[dask]

I think clovis-man was referring specifically to the K for Kroeber being of more significance in America than in the UK. And not just because of Alfred Kroeber. Theodora Kroeber, his wife, was a famous archeologist, too, though he was the more renowned.

Using her middle initial is obviously a personal decision, not an American thing. For a country to drop the middle initial industry-wide sounds like a national thing.

 

[Vladd67]

In my case, having a common name already shared with a few minor celebrities means I needed to make my name unique to me. I figured GRRM did the same, so as not to be confused with the famous producer of the Beatles, George Martin.

Recently when George Martin died I did see some panicked comments on line saying they would never know how ice and fire finishes.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Are there any British ones you can think of that they've missed?

Think? My mind is pretty much a blank this morning.

I can't read the Times Article because I don't have a subscription and I used up my five free articles for the month. But I did notice on the Wikipedia list that a great many of those listed were older authors. Maybe the initial thing is going out of style (is that what the article is about?) except among those who have names that already belong to famous people?

 

[HareBrain]

Maybe the initial thing is going out of style (is that what the article is about?)

Pretty much. Would have saved me a couple of minutes if its writer had been so concise.

 

[J-Sun]

I'm not understanding why this is such a topic of conversation. @dask made the only point that matters to me and was my initial point : Ursula K. Le Guin chose to be Ursula K. Le Guin. Books published in the UK don't refer to her the same way. To check the frequency of her name occurrence, people need to check multiple variants.

Responding directly: @clovis-man : I know/knew what the initial stood for and wasn't making a "national culture" observation but simply observing a regional marketing fact. In books published in her home of the US, she's "K." Just like Arthur is "C." but he is "C." everywhere.

If people really want to talk about initials, though, the one variant (and speaking of the UK ) is that she once published a story in Playboy as "U. K. Le Guin." People sometimes use initials or full names for many reasons, including a supposedly more "literary" sound and some men use nothing but initials. When women do that, it can be for similarly varied reasons but mostly, it's to hide their gender. (In the case of C. L. Moore, for instance, it may have been her idea; in the case of Le Guin, it was at the editor's instigation and she mentioned regretting having done it. (This was before Alice K. Turner began editing Playboy's fiction.) As far as whether it's passing out of fashion, I can speak to statistics but it is still common. It's particularly bizarre when new female authors use all initials in today's market when, at least and especially in short fiction, women are prioritized. Anyway, in Le Guin's case it was presumably a combination of reasons including "literary" sound, distinctiveness, and familial honor.

 

[tinkerdan]

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make with the use of Google Ngrams since it seems to be based around a search of phrases inside books and possibly noting honorable mentions.

However try adding Jules Verne and H.G. Wells to the list and they blow everyone else away.

Then I think that two names that seem to strike me as somewhat unique would be Asimov and Vonnegut and if you input just the last names, you get interesting result on top of adding Jules Verne an H.G. Wells.

However I'm not sure that it's helpful other than to show how often they are mentioned in books.

 

[Randy M.]

I don't find that at all surprising. Arthur C. Clarke is/was well known outside SF circles. Honestly, I don't think Heinlein is (or was).

Well ...

In the '70s and '80s Heinlein had a string of NYT best-sellers, and before that the '60s counter-culture took up Stranger in a Strange Land along with LOTR and Dune. So Heinlein, among readers and the baby-boomer generation, was pretty well-known. Now ... not so sure. I've seen his books in print and whatever its merit or lack thereof, the movie Starship Troopers certainly didn't hurt name recognition.

Clarke, though, besides the '70's and '80s best-sellers, was intimately tied to 2001: A Space Odyssey and that has done wonders for his continued name recognition, along with some of his television work.

Asimov's name was attached to so many varieties of book, his opinion sought out by so many venues for so many things that the lack of strong feature movies and TV shows based on his work hasn't seemed to hurt his fame.


Randy M.
(Which brings up a question I've pondered occasionally: How many books are still read and remembered in large part because of movies based on them? I tend to think of Gone With the Wind and Dracula as possible examples.)

 

[williamjm]

This is a pretty good list, though it includes those who use several initials rather than a combination of forename and initial. From what I can tell without looking up the ones I don't recognise, most of the combination ones are American (including those who use a first initial and then a middle name, e.g. M Somerset Maugham). But there aren't as many as I thought. Are there any British ones you can think of that they've missed?

Peter F. Hamilton is one British SF author that they haven't included.