Toiling in allonymity
In 2002, White House speechwriter David Frum found himself in hot water — and shortly thereafter out of a job — when his wife circulated an email claiming that Frum had coined the “axis of evil” phrase in President Bush’s recently delivered State of the Union address.
“It’s not often a phrase one writes gains national notice,” she wrote, “so I’ll hope you’ll indulge my wifely pride in seeing this one repeated in headlines everywhere!!”
As a fellow flack (for an organization not connected to the White House), I sympathize with the sentiment. Most of my best work has other people’s names attached, and there’s never an appropriate way to claim credit.
My resume used to include a line indicating that I had written “for allonymous publication,” but I withdrew it on the advice of several friends who didn’t think prospective employers would know what it meant — or worse, would think I had misspelled anonymous.
It was a perfectly reasonable worry; I had only discovered the word for myself when, having decided it must exist, I looked it up.
How fitting that the word to describe ghost-writership should itself be so rarely heard.
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