Famous Ghostwritten Books
Few people understand professional ghostwriting.
Your average Joe thinks one person writes the book and the other guy gets the credit.
That’s not ghostwriting. That’s fraud.
Of the following famous books, I have no way of knowing which were legitimately ghostwritten (i.e., the author’s words translated into the ghostwriter’s writing) and which were fraudulent (the “author” simply paid to slap their name on someone else’s book).
So, caveat lector.
Best-Selling Authors Who Used Ghostwriters
Alexandre Dumas in The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo
Michael Crichton in Latitudes (finished posthumously)
Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond
R. L. Stine, author of the children’s series Goosebumps
Tom Clancy
Robert Ludlum
James Patterson
Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve
Hillary Clinton in Living History, acknowledging Maryanne Vollers
Sarah Palin in Going Rogue, with Lynn Vincent
Ronald Reagan in his autobiography An American Life
General Norman Schwarzkopf in It Doesn’t Take a Hero, “with Peter Petre”
Ghostwritten Business Books
I’m a business book ghostwriter, so I have a keen interest in business or business-adjacent books created with the support of a professional writer.
Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People with Ken Shelton
Jack Welch in Jack: Straight From the Gut, “with John Byrne”
Lee Iaccoca in Iaccoca, “with William Novak”
Donald Trump in The Art of the Deal, “with Tony Schwartz”
Howard Schultz in Onward, “with Joanne Gordon”
John Maxwell in fifty books with Charlie Wetzel
Richard Branson in Losing My Virginity, acknowledging Edward Whitley
Andy Grove, chairman of Intel, in Only the Paranoid Survive, “with Catherine Fredman”
Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness (inspiring the film with Will Smith), “with Quincy Troupe”
Meg Whitman in The Power of Many “with Joan O’C. Hamilton”
Dave Longaberger in Longaberger: An American Success Story, acknowledging Robert L. Shook
Sam Walton in Made in America, “with John Huey”
Ghostwriting Gossip, Rumors, and Trivia
And then we have some surprising ghostwriting gossip:
It’s not proven, but many academics accept it as fact that the Bard of Avon used a ghostwriter. Yes, even Shakespeare couldn’t keep up with Shakespeare’s genius.
Mozart ghostwrote music for other composers early in his career for wealthy patrons who wanted to give the impression that they were gifted composers.
There is a strong suspicion that President Ulysses S. Grant’s autobiography was ghostwritten by none other than his longtime friend, Mark Twain.
Despite a libel suit disputing the fact, JFK’s Profiles in Courage was likely a product of his close collaboration with Ted Sorensen.
“Commercial” Ghostwritten Books
Last but not least, there’s a curious practice in publishing where an “author” is, in fact, one of several writers who contribute to a series.
The Hardy Boys. Franklin W. Dixon isn’t real. It’s the pseudonym for multiple writers. I always thought it was weird that the beginning of every Hardy Boys book would include an almost-rote description of each character as they were introduced. Chet and his unbelievable list of hobbies always struck me as odd. Now, I know why.
Don’t shoot the messenger, but Nancy Drew followed the same formula. In fact, the books by “Carolyn Keene” came from the same publisher, Edward Stratemeyer. To give her credit, Stratemeyer’s daughter, Harriet Adams, revised or even rewrote most of those published pre-1959.
Even my personal favorite childhood series, Tom Swift, was also a product of Stratemeyer’s publishing company. Many writers. One “author.”
To Stratemeyer’s credit, he was a prolific author in his own right, having written scores of books himself (perhaps even hundreds) in addition to publishing thousands. In fact, upon his death, Fortune Magazine wrote, “As oil had its Rockefeller, literature had its Stratemeyer.”
Let me know if you’re aware of any other famous books that may have involved a ghostwriter!
