A history of ghostwriting

Ghostwriters are nothing new. Although the term itself is relatively modern, the history of ghostwriting can be traced back to when scribes first put quills to parchment.  So, what did ghostwriting look like back then? How has it changed over the centuries? And who are some of the famous ghostwriters in history?

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For answers to these questions and more, scroll down (pun intended). You’ll find lots of juicy historical nuggets and insight into this ancient art too.

• What does ghostwriting mean?
• When did ghostwriting begin?
• Ghostwriting in the Medieval Era
• Ghostwriting in the Renaissance Era
• The birth of modern ghostwriting
• 20th Century ghostwriting
• Ghostwriting in the Digital Age
• Famous ghostwriters throughout history and their works
• Ghostwriting in music
• Are ghostwriters still a thing?
• The future of ghostwriting
• Will AI replace ghostwriters?

What does ghostwriting mean?

If a text’s been ghostwritten, it means the author did not write it themselves. They hired a ghostwriter to do it for them. Of course, that’s not to say the author didn’t play a major part in the process; it’s very much a collaboration.

If you’re authoring a business or self-help book, your expertise and experience form the basis of the content. The same goes for memoir or autobiography — it’s recounting your life story. Any notes and material you already have will be useful. But your ghostwriter will also spend hours interviewing you to pull more information out of your head. And you’ll also need to review the manuscript and provide feedback.

The only thing the author of a ghostwritten book doesn’t do is the writing. Although the text a good ghostwriter produces will sound like they did.

Ghostwriters don’t usually get the credit for their contribution to the work. Mostly, that’s because they sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) promising not to. For clues a text has been ghostwritten, look closely at the acknowledgements section. Authors sometimes thank their ghost for ‘research’ or ‘editorial help’.

When did ghostwriting start?

No one knows exactly when ghostwriting began, but its origins can be traced back to ancient times. In Ancient Egypt, for example, Pharaohs used scribes to write texts protecting their legacies after their death.

In Ancient Greece, scholars and figures of influence employed scribes to record everything from letters to laws. Speeches included.

We all know the feeling of being moved by a speech. And it’s pretty common knowledge that the speechgiver is not necessarily the speechwriter. Politicians and heads of state have long had ghostwriters’ help in that department. After all, a motivational or persuasive speech is hard to write.

But did you know that this kind of ghostwriting was born in Ancient Greece? So-called ‘logographers’ were hired to compose speeches designed to be delivered in court to build support for a case. There’s evidence that these early speech writers influenced later orators — like Isocrates (436-338), who’s typically credited for discovering the persuasive power of rhetoric.¹

Ghostwriting in the Medieval Period

In ancient times, ghostwriting was largely a practicality. Words were recorded by those with the skills to write them. But as we moved into the Medieval Period, writers turned their attention to books.

Sections of the Bible were probably ghostwritten. The Gospels were written in Greek, for example — yet the Apostles were most likely illiterate.

Then there’s the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. Supposedly authored by Moses, scholars have suspected for over two centuries the Torah was actually the work of multiple ghostwriters. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University² have used a computer algorithm to show this was indeed the case.  

Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey may not have been penned by the poet. The Homeric Question concerning authorship has caused much debate among scholars. The same is likely true of another famous epic, originally chanted or sung.

No one knows who composed Beowulf, or when. But it’s thought to be the work of a single author, sometime between 521 and 750 AD. A single, scorched manuscript copy of the poem’s text in the British Library is believed to date from 1010. Most texts surviving from the 8th Century are in Latin; Beowulf is written in Old English. Yet there’s no mention of Britain at all; it’s set in Scandinavia. Even more confusingly, both Christian and pagan beliefs are mixed into the text.

Literary detectives believe Beowulf is the work of an Anglo-Saxon living in Britain, describing the world of his North Germanic ancestors. And that whoever wrote it down in the 10th century (most likely a monk) may have tampered with the original to give it a Christian veneer.

Ghostwriting in the Renaissance

So we’ve discussed the bible and we’ve investigated Beowulf, but what about famous texts from the Renaissance? Well, who can think Renaissance without thinking of William Shakespeare. Controversy over who wrote some of the most famous plays in history still haunts academics to this day. So much so, there’s even a book on the subject: Shakespeare’s Ghost Writers.

Even the late Prince Philip believed Shakespeare used ghostwriters. Apparently, he’d argue with his son, the now King Charles, about the subject at Christmas dinner. But whichever side of the argument you come down on, by this stage in history the concept of ghostwriting was starting to become less alien.

If the great bard could use ghostwriters, why couldn’t everyone else?

The birth of modern ghostwriting

As soon as printing presses began to roll, demand for ghostwriters rose. A burgeoning publishing industry meant authors soon struggled to keep up with the demand for their work, making the benefits of employing a ghostwriter harder to ignore. And so, modern ghostwriting was born.

It’s said the Empress Josephine hired ghostwriters to tell her story. So did Alexandre Dumas author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. George Washington’s speeches were written for him by Secretary of the Treasury and fellow Founding Father of America, Alexander Hamilton. (You may know Hamilton from the hit Broadway musical he lent his name to…)

20th century ghostwriting

It wasn’t until the 20th century that the term ‘ghostwriter’ was first used. The name was coined by US sports agent, Christy Walsh who commissioned a group of writers he called ‘ghosts’ to write for sports stars like Babe Ruth. By this time though, the profession was well-established and ghostwriting as an industry was growing.

In the mid-20th century, Charles de Gaulle supposedly employed the ghostwriting services of his Minister for Information, Andre Malraux. If that’s true, it’s ‘an illustration of ghostwriting at its best’, reported the New York Times in 2005. “One dashing figure, who has the brains but not the leisure to write a book, secures the services of a genius with time on his hands.”³

Genius aside, nowadays, no decent ghostwriter has time on their hands.

Towards the end of the twentieth century, ghostwriting spread from speeches and novels to Hollywood and sports. And pretty much everything in between. 

Hiring a ghostwriter allowed celebrities to tell their stories without having to commit the time or learn the skills necessary to write a book themselves. From Princess Diana to Michael Jackson, famous figures from all walks of life published autobiographies in the 20th Century that were penned by ghostwriters. 

Ghostwriting in the Digital Age

The digital age has changed the way ghostwriters work for good. Working with clients all over the world is now easy, thanks to the advent of video calls and the internet has made research faster. (Although nothing beats good, old-fashioned ‘footstepping’, as far as I’m concerned.)

Digital tools like Google Docs mean ghostwriters and their clients can collaborate in real time. Plus, advances in technology have also made it easier to find ghostwriters. If they don’t have their own, professional websites you can find them by searching freelance platforms like Freelancer or Upwork. Or on social media networks like Linkedin.

The digital era has ushered in a revolution in publishing too. Those with a story to tell no longer need to persuade literary agents and traditional publishers it’s worth printing. Memoirs are no longer the monopoly of celebrities, sports stars and politicians. Authors are doing it for themselves and self-publishing instead.

A ghostwriter’s role can be crucial in this process. Not only can they provide high-quality writing that sounds like you, they can help you navigate the self-publishing process. So your book finds its intended audience.

Last, (but definitely not least) the rise in content marketing has created a surge in demand for ghostwriters who can write engaging web content optimised for search engines. Because there’s no point having a website if no one sees it, is there?

Famous ghostwriters throughout history and their works

Although ghostwriting has traditionally been a hidden practice, we now know of a number of famous ghostwriters throughout history. Let’s shine a light on them and their works.

Fiction

H P Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft was a science fiction and fantasy author in his own right but also ghosted for famous escapist artist Harry Houdini. Imprisoned with the Pharaohs, a short story published in 1924 is Lovecraft’s work. They were also planning a three-way collaboration with fellow author C. M. Eddy on a book called The Cancer of Superstition when Houdini died in 1926. ⁴ 

August Maquet

French author Auguste Maquet is said to have collaborated with Alexandre Dumas. He famously co-wote works like The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. There’s even a movie on the subject, L’Autre Dumas, reigniting literary debate.

Mark Greaney

Mark Greaney, the best-selling author of The Gray Man series (now a Netflix film) collaborated with Tom Clancy during his final years. He worked with Clancy on his last three novels before his death in 2013: Locked On (2012), Threat Vector (2013) and Command Authority (2013). 

Raymond Benson

Raymond Benson is an American author known for writing six James Bond books, including Tomorrow Never Dies. He was also hired by Tom Clancy to ghostwrite some of the ‘Splinter Cell’ series.

Carolyn Keene

The Nancy Drew mysteries were not Carolyn Keene’s work. Carolyn Keene never existed. She was a pseudonym for a syndicate of writers including Mildred Wirt Benson who ghostwrote 23 of the books, including The Secret of the Old Clock. Others were written by Walter Karig, George Waller Jr, Wilhelmina Rankin, Alma Sasse, Charles S Strong, Iris Vinton and Patricial Doll. 

Alexandra Ripley

American writer, Alexandra Ripley penned several bestsellers of her own. But she’s best known for ghosting Scarlett, the sequel to Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. To prepare herself for the task, not only did she re-read the novel several times, she wrote the first 300 pages out in longhand to see if she could capture Margaret Mitchell’s essence.

Andrew Neidermann

Andrew Neidermann has published 40 novels under his own name, but he’s also been ghostwriting V C Andrews’ books for over three decades. Ever since her death in 1986. 

Most famous for her 1979 bestseller, Flowers in the Attic, Virginia (V C) Andrews wrote only seven books before she died. Neidermann was originally hired to finish Garden of Shadows, the novel Andrews was working on at the time of her death. Since then, he has continued her legacy. V C Andrews’ gothic novels are now sold in 95 countries worldwide and have been translated into dozens of languages. 

Non-fiction

Mark Twain

Mark Twain, probably America’s best-known writer of all time, helped President Ulysses S Grant write his two-volume Personal Memoirs, published in 1885. Grant’s original manuscript survives and is written in his own hand. However, Twain worked tirelessly on it with the President, offering page-by-page literary advice and proofreading the work to make sure it was finished before Grant died in 1885.⁵

Andrew Crofts

One of the world’s most sought-after ghostwriters, Andrew Crofts has been in the ghostwriting business since 1984. He’s since ghosted non-fiction books for ‘everyone from film stars to footballers, hitmen to hookers, world leaders to abused children’.⁶ And out of the 80 or so books he’s ghostwritten, a dozen are bestsellers. 

Under his own name, he’s published Confessions of a Ghostwriter and Ghostwriting, a ‘ How to’ manual which Robert Harris used to research his 2007 political thriller, The Ghost. 

Politics

Robert Lindsey

Robert Lindsey was an American journalist who wrote Marlon Brando and Ronald Reagan’s memoirs. He even wrote a memoir about his ghosting career, Ghost Scribbler, published in 2012. Reagan was so blase about his use of a ghostwriter, that when asked about its authorship at a 1990 Simon & Schuster press conference, he said, “I hear it’s a terrific book. One of these days I’m going to read it myself”.⁷

Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton wrote letters and speeches for George Washington in the late 18th century. Ron Chernow writes in his book ‘Alexander Hamilton’ that Hamilton became so confident writing Washington’s letters he began to write them without speaking to Washington at all.

Ted Sorensen

An advisor and speech writer to President John F. Kennedy, Ted Sorensen was responsible for the ‘Ask not what your country can do for you,’ speech. The President became so connected with Sorensen that he described him as his ‘intellectual blood bank’.

Popular Culture

Julia Turshen, a food writer for the New York Times, has ghostwritten several cookbooks. Including, allegedly, Gwyneth Paltrow’s 2011 My Father’s Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family and Togetherness.⁸ Although Paltrow denies this, claiming she wrote every word of the book herself, she admits in the acknowledgements, “I literally could not have written this book without the tireless, artful assistance of Julia Turshen”. Hmm.

Music

Ghostwriting is not confined to books, speeches or letters. You’ll find it in music too. The history of Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor is a case in point. He wrote the piece for Count Von Franz Walsegg in 1792, who passed it off as his own work.

Many stars of the music world have been known to outsource their lyrics. A songwriter will often write a song and then offer it to various artists until they find the right fit. 

So who are these songwriters? Well, Cole Porter, Hank Williams and Stephen Sondheim to name a few. Frank Sinatra employed Charles Singleton and Bart Howard to write his lyrics. Howard was responsible for his No. 1 hit, Strangers in the Night. ⁹

Bernie Taupin has worked extensively with Sir Elton John. Taupin is responsible for some of the most famous songs in a generation, including the likes of Rocket Man and Your Song. Sia has written songs for other artists including Beyonce and Rhianna.

But not all songwriters are famous artists in their own right. And that’s because songwriting is ghostwriting. Lyricists aren’t often publicly credited for their work, no matter how successful a song may become. 

Are ghostwriters still a thing?

In the early 1980s, “ghostwriting” was a dirty word”. Not any more. The secrecy surrounding it is dissipating. Celebrities and public figures — from royals to athletes and politicians to pop stars — are now much less shy about the fact they work with ghostwriters. I mean, everyone knows who penned Prince Harry’s Spare, along with the six-figure fee he got paid for it, right?

So yes, ghostwriters are very much still a thing. And hiring them is pretty easy too.

The future of ghostwriting

The ghostwriting industry shows no signs of slowing down. Self-publishing has taken off and the internet has made ghostwriters more sought-after than ever before. There’s just one elephant in the room that needs addressing: Artificial Intelligence. 

Will AI replace ghostwriters?

If you’re reading this and you haven’t heard of AI, then, frankly, where have you been? Programmes like ChatGPT have taken the internet by storm, causing much debate among my writerly friends about whether AI will take over ghostwriting.

But you know what? Even the bots themselves don’t think AI will replace ghostwriters. How do I know this? Because I asked.

Here’s what they replied:

No. AI is not likely to replace ghostwriters because it can’t replicate the human qualities that make ghostwriting unique.

If the bots are to be believed, AI can’t replicate a ghostwriter’s emotional intelligence, creative prowess, cultural understanding or depth of human experience. Nor can it create ‘the human connection ghostwriters bring to their work’. Their answer got a thumbs up from me, obviously.

Most of my writer friends agree that AI can be a useful tool, though. Some say it helps with writer’s block, suggesting character arcs or storylines. Even if they’re not useful suggestions in themselves, these can provide a jumping-off point. And AI can speed up research. Although I would always recommend source-checking… the intelligence is not always up-to-date or accurate.

So, AI may have the facts but a ghostwriter brings more than facts to the writing table. They bring nuance, skill, creativity and — importantly — a human touch.

Which means ghostwriters can sleep well at night. For now, anyway.

Looking for a ghostwriter?

If you’re looking for a ghostwriter, you’re in the right place. Have an idea for a book or a project you’d like to talk through? Please get in touch. Or for more information on how I can help, head to my ghostwriting services page.

Sources

1. Enos, R. L. (1974). The persuasive and social force of logography in ancient Greece. Central States Speech Journal, 25(1), 4–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510977409367762 ↩︎
2. Viva Sarah Press, ‘Ghostwriting the Bible’. Israel21C. October 16, 2011. https://www.israel21c.org/ghostwriting-the-bible/ ↩︎
3. Queenan, Joe, ‘Ghosts in the Machine’, New York Times, 2005. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/books/review/ghosts-in-the-machine.html ↩︎
4. Piepenbring, ‘Lovecraft ghostwrote for Houdini, and other news’, The Paris Review, March 18, 2016. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/03/18/lovecraft-ghostwrote-for-houdini-and-other-news/ ↩︎
5. How Mark Twain helped Ulysses S. Grant write his Personal Memoirs, https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/how-mark-twain-helped-ulysses-s-grant-write-his-personal-memoirs.htm ↩︎
6. Crofts, A, Confessions of a Ghostwriter, 2014. ↩︎
7. The New Yorker, October 6, 1997 p. 88. 88https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1997/10/06/prompting-the-president ↩︎
8. Turshen, Julia. ‘I was a cookbook ghostwriter’. New York Times, 14 March 2012. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/dining/i-was-a-cookbook-ghostwriter.html ↩︎
9. https://www.billboard.com/photos/hit-songs-ghostwriters-beyonce-frank-sinatra-rihanna-kelly-clarkson/1-beyonce-lil-kim-elvis-wrote-songs-for-other-people-2015-billboard-650/ ↩︎