I've been reading some of the give and take between contributors to the
Virginia Gazettes on various subjects between 1750 and 1780. Most of the
pieces are signed with pseudonyms, ranging from Academicus to Zoilus.



   The Evans bibliography suggests authorship for some of the separately
printed pamphlets, but is no help for newspaper essayists.  A few of the
latter have been identified if their essays caught the attention of R B
Davis or Leo Lemay etc., and I'm familiar with things like of Jack Greene's
identification of Landon Carter's pistole fee essays in the WMQ (1957),
Carole Shammas's attribution to Benjamin Harrison III of 'An Essay upon the
Government of the English Plantations' in the VMHB (1976) - contesting Louis
Wright's suggestion of Wm Byrd II.



   My subject searches in the online catalogues of the major VA libraries
and LC turn up scant secondary scholarship about the identities of colonial
Virginia writers - and the general-reference dictionaries of anonymous and
pseudonymous authors don't have much to offer for colonial Virginia.



   I'm wondering whether any of VA-HIST's distinguished "lurkers" can point
me toward any compilations or lists of pseudonymous authors for colonial
Virginia essays and pamphlets . . . .   Is there anything comparable to
the various editions of Pierce Welch Gaines's "Political works of concealed
authorship in the United States, 1789-1810, with attributions" ?



Many thanks



-- 
Jon Kukla
www.JonKukla.com
Online interview : http://www.virginiavoice.org/celebrity.html

______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html