Nom De Plume?
Title
Nom De Plume?
Identifier
NOM_DE_PLUME
Creator
Jacob Schlitt
Description
"In my mother’s will (of all places!) she wrote, 'In the event that my son Jacob should prove to be a writer, I would like him to use the name Goldstein or Tzirlson'."
Date
2015-01-08
Format
application/pdf
Type
text
Language
en
Text
NOM DE PLUME?
In my mother’s will (of all places!) she wrote, “In the event that my son Jacob should prove to be a writer, I would like him to use the name Goldstein or Tzirlson.” To explain those names: Goldstein was my mother’s maiden name, and Tzirlson was her way of identifying me as her son. Her Yiddish name was Tzirl.
Here was a woman who grew up in a shtetl in Romania, did not have a day of schooling, came to America illiterate, learned to read Yiddish in her twenties, after working all day in a sweat shop. (She learned to read and write English in her thirties, at night school, after marrying, and no longer having to work.) From the time she married, in 1916, she was a constant reader of Yiddish. Her heroes were the Yiddish writers, poets, and playwrights. She made a montage of their photographs, framed it and hung it in a place of honor in the living room.
My mother would have liked to have been a writer. She had a wonderful command of Yiddish; she read extensively. But she never learned how to write Yiddish. It may be hard to comprehend, since we all learn to write as we learn to read. Unfortunately, my mother did not. In the last year of her life, she had a recording machine, but by then it was too late.
My mother also had a touching expression about writers: “To be a writer is to be immortal.” In her view, the works of writers live forever, and therefore the writer lives forever, whether William Shakespeare or Mickey Spillane. As long as someone can go into a bookstore or a library and ask for the works of writer X and be given it, writer X will never die.
My mother wanted me to be a writer, and I am now writing these pieces—memoirs and observations. And as a writer, remembering my mother’s request, I now find myself thinking, how should I sign them? Since I have been sharing them only with my children and closest friends, it would be silly to sign them with a “nom de plume.” Neither Goldstein nor Tsirlson. The fact is, I don’t sign them. I only date them. And since I e-mail them, the recipients know who sent them.
I have been toying with the idea of giving these pieces wider distribution. I contacted our local weekly newspaper, the Brookline Tab, and asked if they would like to run what I have been writing, on a regular basis. I sent the editor a couple of pieces. She liked what I wrote, and suggested that I send them whatever I thought would be appropriate, but she would give me no guarantee that they would be printed, and no more than 800 words. Now I am faced with the quandary: Should I sign them with my name, or with one of the two names that my mother asked me to consider?
In addition to sending my pieces to my children and close friends, I read some of them to the members of my “Telling Your Story” writing class. Do I disclaim authorship, and announce that the pieces I will be reading from now on were written by someone named Goldstein or Tzirlson? I am afraid they would not believe me. The new pieces will sound like the stuff I have been writing (and reading) for the past 15 years. Besides, in front of Goldstein or Tzirlson, do I use my real first name, or do I make one up? Or do I just use initials? Several women writers used initials as a way of hiding their gender. If my pieces are printed and people see initials, they may think it was written by a woman.
Anyway, I think pen names are silly. Why hide your identity? A friend once asked me why I write. Was it because I had something to say, or because I wanted to see my name in print? I answered “both,” as I usually do to such questions. And if it is even partly because you want to see your name in print, why change your name? Unless you feel compelled to fulfill your mother’s request.
1-8-15
In my mother’s will (of all places!) she wrote, “In the event that my son Jacob should prove to be a writer, I would like him to use the name Goldstein or Tzirlson.” To explain those names: Goldstein was my mother’s maiden name, and Tzirlson was her way of identifying me as her son. Her Yiddish name was Tzirl.
Here was a woman who grew up in a shtetl in Romania, did not have a day of schooling, came to America illiterate, learned to read Yiddish in her twenties, after working all day in a sweat shop. (She learned to read and write English in her thirties, at night school, after marrying, and no longer having to work.) From the time she married, in 1916, she was a constant reader of Yiddish. Her heroes were the Yiddish writers, poets, and playwrights. She made a montage of their photographs, framed it and hung it in a place of honor in the living room.
My mother would have liked to have been a writer. She had a wonderful command of Yiddish; she read extensively. But she never learned how to write Yiddish. It may be hard to comprehend, since we all learn to write as we learn to read. Unfortunately, my mother did not. In the last year of her life, she had a recording machine, but by then it was too late.
My mother also had a touching expression about writers: “To be a writer is to be immortal.” In her view, the works of writers live forever, and therefore the writer lives forever, whether William Shakespeare or Mickey Spillane. As long as someone can go into a bookstore or a library and ask for the works of writer X and be given it, writer X will never die.
My mother wanted me to be a writer, and I am now writing these pieces—memoirs and observations. And as a writer, remembering my mother’s request, I now find myself thinking, how should I sign them? Since I have been sharing them only with my children and closest friends, it would be silly to sign them with a “nom de plume.” Neither Goldstein nor Tsirlson. The fact is, I don’t sign them. I only date them. And since I e-mail them, the recipients know who sent them.
I have been toying with the idea of giving these pieces wider distribution. I contacted our local weekly newspaper, the Brookline Tab, and asked if they would like to run what I have been writing, on a regular basis. I sent the editor a couple of pieces. She liked what I wrote, and suggested that I send them whatever I thought would be appropriate, but she would give me no guarantee that they would be printed, and no more than 800 words. Now I am faced with the quandary: Should I sign them with my name, or with one of the two names that my mother asked me to consider?
In addition to sending my pieces to my children and close friends, I read some of them to the members of my “Telling Your Story” writing class. Do I disclaim authorship, and announce that the pieces I will be reading from now on were written by someone named Goldstein or Tzirlson? I am afraid they would not believe me. The new pieces will sound like the stuff I have been writing (and reading) for the past 15 years. Besides, in front of Goldstein or Tzirlson, do I use my real first name, or do I make one up? Or do I just use initials? Several women writers used initials as a way of hiding their gender. If my pieces are printed and people see initials, they may think it was written by a woman.
Anyway, I think pen names are silly. Why hide your identity? A friend once asked me why I write. Was it because I had something to say, or because I wanted to see my name in print? I answered “both,” as I usually do to such questions. And if it is even partly because you want to see your name in print, why change your name? Unless you feel compelled to fulfill your mother’s request.
1-8-15
Original Format
application/msword
Collection
Citation
Jacob Schlitt, “Nom De Plume?,” Autobiographical stories & other writing by Jacob Schlitt, accessed April 23, 2025, https://tsirlson.omeka.net/items/show/341.