Is the J silent in “Betjeman”?

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The Overlook Press is delivering a mythical one-two punch with the publication of a biography of epic novelist John Cowper Powys next month followed by an unabridged version of ‘Porius,’ his Arthurian epic, in September. So, I know what I’ll be soon reading. But still I need to ask a very important question:

How the heck do you pronounce his name?

Is it as obvious as it seems?

‘Cowper,’ it turns out, is pronounced as ‘Cooper’--the name links him to his distant kin William Cowper, English poet of depression (see his famous poem, ‘The Castaway’). ‘Powys’ is trickier: It’s an ancestral name that should be pronounced as ‘Pow-iss’--at least that’s the consensus on the web.

One person online offers the snotty reply to a request for help on pronouncing the name: ‘Just the way it’s written.’ Thanks for that.

All of this leads me to think of the many author names that can break your heart. I’m not talking about obvious landmines--Uzodinma Iweala, for instance--but seemingly easy ones that aren’t easy after all.

Patrick McGrath. Simple, right? His last name, he tells interviewers, should be pronounced ‘McGraw’ even though he’ll answer to the more obvious version. Or that fine biographer of things British, Jenny Uglow, who just published a book on an 18th-century engraver--is her name ‘ugg-glow’ or ‘yew-glow’?

Here are a few to consider:

Gioconda Belli: Does the Nicaraguan poet say ‘belly’ or is it ‘bell-EYE’?

John Betjeman: Is the ‘j’ silent in this poet’s name? What the devil is it doing there?

T. Coraghessan Boyle: Born Thomas John Boyle, his middle name wasn’t fancy enough, so he adopted another.

Michael Chabon: CHAY-bun or Shah-BONE or something else?

J.M. Coetzee: No idea

Edwidge Danticat: It’s this Haitian-born American author’s first name that worries me

Thomas Kinsella: The proper Irish pronunciation, I’m told, is ‘Kin-SAH-la’

Rick Riordan: This children’s author says it is ‘RYE-or-dan’

Nick Owchar