The reasons authors choose pen names are as various as the names they choose though we won't get too far into it. Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) debated several names: X, P.S. Burton, Kenneth Miles, and H. Lewis Allways but decided on George Orwell because it sounded like a good English name. His reason for wanting his real name unknown was he didn't want to embarrass his family. Many of us have heard about how the moniker Mark Twain is a nautical term though the reason Samuel Clemens gave differs in that he says he took over the name as Captain Isaiah Sellers who had been using it had died and wouldn't be needing it any longer. Lastly Stephen King was too prolific for his publishers, the thought at the time being the public wouldn't accept more that one book a year from an author. At the time he had one of his novels on his desk that featured the character Richard Stark and Bachman Turner Overdrive's song, " You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" was playing, boom, problem solved!
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