List of fictitious people

Fictitious people are nonexistent people, who, unlike fictional characters, have been claimed to actually exist. Usually this is done as a practical joke or hoax, but sometimes fictitious people are 'created' as part of a fraud. A pseudonym may also be considered by some to be a "fictitious person", although this is not the correct definition.

Hoaxes

Pseudonyms

This list includes pseudonyms supplied with a biography suggesting the existence of a person distinct from the actual person with the pseudonym in question, often with the purpose of a hoax.

See also Category:Collective pseudonyms (many of them were not claimed as "real" people).

  • Penelope Ashe, supposed "demure Long Island housewife" who authored Naked Came The Stranger. Actually a pseudonym of a collective of writers, and portrayed by one of their relatives during interviews.
  • Richard Bachman, a pseudonym of Stephen King, given a fake biography and author photo.
  • Silence Dogood, a false persona used by Benjamin Franklin to get his work published.
  • Roderick Jaynes, editor of all the films of Joel and Ethan Coen. Actually a pseudonym for the Coens themselves. "Jaynes", supposedly a cantankerous Englishman in his 80s, has also penned a dismissive introduction to a book of the Coens' scripts, and an article in The Guardian discussing his work on The Man Who Wasn't There.
  • Kozma Prutkov, arrogant Russian writer and government official, who published bombastic pieces that ended up being satirical commentary on Russian bureaucracy. A creation of 4 Russian writers, including Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875) and Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov.
  • Lemony Snicket, a pseudonym used by Daniel Handler for his A Series of Unfortunate Events. Snicket, who is also a character in the books, is the meta-fictional narrator of the series.
  • Wrench Tuttle, an Atlanta-based "poet, traveler, activist and philosopher". Canadian musician/composer Bob Wiseman "collaborated" with lyricist Tuttle by mail, for the 1989 album In Her Dream: Bob Wiseman Sings Wrench Tuttle. Tuttle was, in reality, Wiseman.
  • Kilgore Trout originally was a character created by Kurt Vonnegut, who later became a pseudonym used by Philip José Farmer to publish, as a homage to Vonnegut, an actual version of one of the fictional Trout's books, Venus on the Half-Shell (1975). Farmer's work is based on a moment in Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater that describes a character reading a copy of Trout's novel, "Venus on the Half-Shell". Vonnegut was not happy about the publication of Farmer's book, but he declined to sue over the use of his intellectual property.[1]
  • Gerald Wiley, authorial pseudonym used by sketch comedy performer Ronnie Barker on shows in which he was a performer. Initially, even other writers on the show were unaware that sketches submitted by "Wiley" were in fact written by Barker; Barker wanted his sketches to be judged on merit, not on the fact he was a cast member or star.
  • Andrew MacDonald, a pseudonym for William Luther Pierce, white supremacist and author of The Turner Diaries.

Arts and entertainment

Academia

Politics

Covert operations

Sports

Unclassified
Please help in putting them into appropriate sections.

References
  1. Leeds, Marc (2016). The Vonnegut Encyclopedia (Revised and updated ed.). New York. ISBN 978-0-385-34423-4. OCLC 960816202.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. Ben Macintyre, "Operation Mincemeat", Bloomsbury, 2010, passim.
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