Co-Work

[pompe]

Being somewhat trained in science I'm used to things I read having more than one author and to try to interpret who did what from how the names are listed on the paper

Comments

[auriaephiala]

How do you classify books written by two authors and published under one pseudonym?

I think there's a huge difference between
* books written by Big Name Author & beginning author, or books written by author continuing the universe of Dead or Senescent Big Name Author

and

* books written by two authors of about the same generation / popularity who simply wanted to try a collaboration.

Some of the latter books can be excellent.

[stoutfellow]

How do you classify books written by two authors and published under one pseudonym?

I was just about to mention one notable case from outside SF (although inside a different genre ghetto): Ellery Queen, a very popular name in detective fiction for many years, and a joint pseudonym for Frederick Dannay and Manfred Lee. (Wikipedia suggests that, in general, Dannay plotted and Lee wrote, but admits that that's probably too simplistic.)

[auriaephiala]

Ditto Manning Coles, for another mystery-writing team from the same era.

The most obvious example of Good SF written by two authors is the books by Fred Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth: The Space Merchants, Gladiator-At-Law, etc. Definitely classics.

[pompe]

Q1: I don't know. But I'd guess that if they are published under pseudonym you wouldn't sort of fear that one author is doing the work and the other supplying a sellable name (to be exceedingly crude and unfair).

I'd say that collaborations of the kind you describe probably can be good, but how common is that compared to version one, Big & Smaller Name? (That's not a rhetorical question)

[auriaephiala]

Off-hand, I'd guess there's twice as many version one as version two, but that still leaves a decent number of version two. And they're easy enough to distinguish, both by publisher and by author name.

As well, you really don't get any version one books pre-1970.

[stoutfellow]

One "version one" case that might be worth considering is Niven/Pournelle. My understanding is that when they first collaborated, in the mid-'70s, Niven was much better known than Pournelle, and that - at least in the early collaborations - their joint work was notably superior to what either was producing solo. ("My understanding" only, and certainly subject to correction.)