Ghostwriter

From Freepedia

A ghostwriter is a writer who writes under someone else's name, with their consent. Ghostwriters are often employed by celebrities to write autobiographies in situations in which the celebrities themselves may not be talented writers. Ghostwriters are also employed, often with proper billing, by authors whose names alone will sell a book, such as Tom Clancy. Ghostwriters sometimes receive partial credit, signified by "with" or "as told to". Credit may also appear as a "thanks" in a foreword or introduction. Just because a book is ghostwritten does not necessarily mean that the credited author did not make a significant contribution to the work; a ghostwriter is often employed to polish and edit existing material, or to work directly with the credited author to shape the book from start to finish.

A related concept is that of the house pseudonym, where a series is credited to a single author to disguise the fact that it is the work of diverse hands. This practice is distinct from ghost writing proper in that the author of record is usually not a real person. Prominent examples include Carolyn Keene ("author" of the Nancy Drew mysteries), Franklin W. Dixon (The Hardy Boys), and Maxwell Grant (The Shadow).

Famous ghostwritten books

• John F. Kennedy was accused of having the Pulitzer Prize winning work Profiles in Courage ghostwritten, mainly by his assistant Theodore Sorenson, but the two of them rejected such claims. (See Profiles in Courage for details.)
• Barbara Feinman was the ghostwriter for It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us by Hillary Clinton. Clinton later won a Grammy Award for a recording of her memoirs, Living History.
• William Shatner used a ghostwriter for his science-fiction books.
• H. P. Lovecraft served as a ghostwriter for Harry Houdini.
• The novelization of Star Wars (credited to George Lucas) was written by Alan Dean Foster.