Ghostwriting: A Graveyard of Ethics

Ghostwriting is the practice of writing on behalf of a person, group, or company. Ghostwriters generally aren’t credited at all but instead haunt the shadowy work in between its margins and behind its pages. They spend hours researching and writing, as well as interviewing their client to draw material from them. If their client is an established author, they use this opportunity to better understand and impersonate their style. Ghostwriters oftentimes sign a contract to ensure their involvement remains unseen by the public, and this under-the-table quality has raised many eyebrows despite its legality. It has even been described as the “shady second cousin of plagiarism” by Ernest R. May. 

A statue of Cicero, a famed Roman statesman and orator who was accused of acting as a logographer

While most people today associate ghostwriting with celebrity memoirs, it has existed for centuries since ancient Greece and Rome. In Athens, men who were paid to write speeches and letters for public figures to deliver were called logographers (λογογράφος in the Greek alphabet), a derogatory title that literally translates to “speech writer.” The rules of their court system demanded that speakers deliver articulate oratory on the spot without reading from notes, and this pressure led many to turn to logographers. This practice continued in Rome since the elite were expected to be able to write and speak with the same unrehearsed, spontaneous eloquence. Since then, leaders from all over the world have similarly relied on ghostwriters to craft their messages to the public.

A photograph of Auguste Maquet

Now, ghostwriting in fiction is an entirely different subject. It’s been revealed that Alexandre Dumas, celebrated author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, co-wrote many of his classics with a man named Auguste Maquet. The pair began working together in the 1840s, and Maquet provided Dumas with a manuscript that would be published under Dumas’s name alone as Le Chevalier d’Harmental. They would go on to collaborate on a number of novels and plays until, in 1858, a frustrated Maquet sued for joint rights to their body of work. Maquet ultimately lost the court case and was soon forgotten in the shadow of Dumas’s celebrity. It wasn’t until the late 19th century that his role was discovered, and there has been subsequent discourse over the extent of Maquet’s involvement. Many believe that he was Dumas’s equal and vital to his writing process. 

The first book in the Nancy Drew series

It’s common for long-running series to be ghostwritten as well, being a realistic means to keep the shelves stocked with the newest editions. This has been the case with many beloved children’s series, including Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Baby-Sitters Club, and Warriors. In 1930, writer and publisher Edward Stratemeyer came up with the character of Nancy Drew and a synopsis alongside his daughters. They then hired teams of ghostwriters to write the stories under the shared pseudonym of Carolyn Keene. After the success that teenage amateur sleuth Nancy Drew garnered, the Stratemeyer Syndicate reused the same strategy with The Hardy Boys. While the company tried to keep their method a secret for decades, the truth eventually got out. The fantasy series Warriors followed suit under the shared pseudonym of Erin Hunter.

A photograph of James Patterson 

Unlike the shadowy syndicate behind Carolyn Keene, James Patterson doesn’t hide that his books are ghostwritten. This isn’t hard to believe considering that, since 1976, more than 200 novels have been published under his name and seemingly fill every bookstore. Patterson openly lends this recognizable name to writers who often share the byline and hope to gain more recognition through the brand that he’s built in the mystery and thriller genres. Tom Clancy has become a similar brand-name in the field of spy and military storylines, and it continues to live on in new novels even after his death in 2013. It has even extended beyond literature and inspired military video games, films, and TV shows. 

The cover of Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming

Celebrity memoirs are notorious for being ghostwritten, as no one expects celebrities to have the time nor talent in writing in addition to whatever made them famous. Former First Lady Michelle Obama, for example, “wrote” her memoir, Becoming, which went on to become an immediate success. However, in an article with The Atlantic in 2019, her husband, former President Barack Obama let it slip that Michelle had used a ghostwriter. The identity of this ghostwriter has yet to be revealed. Familiar names such as Benito Mussolini, Gwyneth Paltrow, John F. Kennedy, Paris Hilton, Prince Harry, and Ronald Reagan have employed ghostwriters for their memoirs, too.

But when does ghostwriting cross the line of professionalism and practicality and into the unethical? This often happens when ghostwriters are either uncredited, as seen in the situation of Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet, or underpaid. Thankfully, protection for the hard-working yet largely invisible forces behind many popular books and memoirs has improved since the 1800s. Ghostwriters have been given the credit that they deserve and the visibility that many in the past were denied by powerful companies and figures.  In the end, ghostwriting is ethical if it was reached as a mutually beneficial, legal agreement between the ghostwriter and their client. But it is up to the reader and their values to decide whether to pick up a product of ghostwriting or not.

Works Cited

Bond, Sarah E. “The Art of the Logographer: Ghostwriting from Antiquity to Trump.” History From Below, 19 Mar. 2019, https://sarahemilybond.com/2019/03/19/the-art-of-the-logographer-ghostwriting-from-antiquity-to-trump/

Brule, Cecile. “The Fascinating History of Ghostwriting.” The Writers for Hire, 22 Jul. 2022, https://www.thewritersforhire.com/the-fascinating-history-of-ghostwriting/

Davies, Lizzy. “Film reignites literary debate over Alexandre Dumas’s ghostwriter.” The Guardian, 9 Feb. 2010, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/09/maquet-dumas-ghostwriter-feud

Dovere, Edward-Isaac. “How Barack Obama Will Affect the 2020 Election.” The Atlantic, 23 May. 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/05/obama-2020-election/590056/

Mumford, Andrew, and Katherine Bayford. “Ghostwriting History.” Engelsberg Ideas, 18 May 2023, https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/ghostwriting-history/

Seidlinger, Michael J. “Pseudonyms and Secrets: The True Identities Behind 7 Mystery Writers.” Murder & Mayhem, 9 Dec. 2021, https://murder-mayhem.com/mystery-ghost-writers

Thür, Gerhard (Graz), and Rhodes, Peter J. (Durham). ‘Logographos’. Brill’s New Pauly. Ed. Hubert Cancik and et al. Brill Reference Online. Web. 20 Jan. 2024.

Kyle Wanberg. “Ghostwriting History: Subverting the Reception of Le Regard Du Roi and Le Devoir de Violence.” Comparative Literature Studies, vol. 50, no. 4, 2013, pp. 589–617. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5325/complitstudies.50.4.0589. Accessed 20 Jan. 2024.

Photo Credits

https://www.apexcontent.us/blog/the-basics-of-ghostwriting

https://historycollection.com/romes-greatest-orator-life-death-cicero/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Maquet

https://www.amazon.com/Nancy-Drew-Mystery-Stories-Staircase/dp/B0058M649Q

https://gitmind.com/james-patterson-books.html

https://www.amazon.com/Michelle-Obama-Cover-Becoming-Hardcover/dp/B07XWD32R1