Pseudonyms
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (his real name was Charles Dodgson)

The surprises begin when a daydreaming Alice encounters a White Rabbit who is frantically running late. She chases him and falls into the magical, madcap world of Wonderland, with its kaleidoscope of off-the-wall characters - including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Cheshire Cat, and the manic Mad Hatter and March Hare, who invite her to a memorable tea party! The crowning confrontations begins when Alice meets the notorious Queen of Hearts and her enchanted deck of playing cards. Tricked into a curious game of croquet, Alice, and her patience, end up on trial. Is there no escape from this whimsical escapade?
This is how Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll looked.

Dirt: Carroll lectured at Oxford in mathematics even though he was shy and stammering and reputedly a boring lecturer. He wrote several mathematical books, was ordained as a deacon but never preached, and was a talented portrait photographer. His principal enthusiasm, however, was for little girls, for whom he created many amusing games and puzzles and for one of whom, Alice Liddell, he wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
George Eliot
(her real name was Mary Ann Evans)
(1819-80)

Novels you may have heard of: Silas Marner, Mill on the Floss, and Middlemarch.

Dirt: George's first husband was separated from his wife and could not obtain a divorce. In 1854, George Eliot "entered into an irregular union with him that lasted until his death in 1878; they lived as man and wife and were accepted as such by their friends." Now this is customary behavior. The Victorians frowned upon it, though.
The British author George Orwell, (his real name was Eric Blair, b. Motihari, India, June 25, 1903, d. London, Jan. 21, 1950, achieved prominence in the late 1940s as the author of two brilliant satires attacking totalitarianism. Those would be Animal Farm and 1984.

Dirt: Well, he was a Socialist, but I think we can forgive even that if people write this brilliantly.
I'm hoping that even if you've lived in a cave all your life, you know what Mark Twain looks like. He was not only the nation's first literary celebrity; "Mark Twain," born in the Nevada Territory in 1863 of Sam Clemens' ambitions, nurtured by publishers, editors and other promoters, adopted by a grateful American public, "Mark Twain" became a kind of mythic hero.

Novels you may have heard of: Life on the Mississipi, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, The Gilded Age, and The Mysterious Stranger.

Dirt: Became bitter and disillusioned after the death of his daughter. He introduced colloquial speech into American fiction.