Introduction to the Attribution of Literature: The Re-Attribution of the British 18th and 19th Century Corpuses

by Anna Faktorovich

Introduction to the Attribution of Literature describes the first unbiased and accessible authorship attribution method, and uses it to present the first accurate re-attribution of 311 canonical texts from the 18th century to only 10 ghostwriters, and 323 texts from the 19th century to 11 ghostwriters. For example, the little-known Sir Francis Cowley Burnand is chronologically, stylometrically, and with handwriting analysis, proven to be the ghostwriter behind 55 canonical tested texts, including "Emily Bronte's" Wuthering Heights, "Collins'" Woman in White, "Doyle's" Sherlock Holmes, "Kipling's" Captain Courageous, "Stoker's" Dracula, "Anthony Trollope's" American Senator, "Wells'" Island of Doctor Moreau, "Wilde's" Picture of Dorian Gray, and "Dickens'" Great Expectations. This method applies a combination of 23 to 28 different types of punctuation, parts-of-speech, and lexical linguistic tests. Parts of this book offer extensive statistical evidence in support of why this method’s findings are quantitatively reliable. If preceding attribution methods had been equally reliable; then, they would have also concluded canonical British texts have been overwhelmingly ghostwritten. A section in this book explains the methodological flaws of these preceding attribution approaches, because of which they have incorrectly reaffirmed their canonically-accepted bylines. It includes definitions of central stylometric terminology, and explains how readers can apply the described strategies to their own attribution research at any academic level.

Kindle Edition

Published November 19, 2025

About the author

Anna Faktorovich is the Director and Founder of the Anaphora Literary Press. She taught college English at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and the Middle Georgia State College. She has a Ph.D. in English Literature and Criticism. She published two academic books with McFarland: "Rebellion as Genre in the Novels of Scott, Dickens and Stevenson" (2013) and "The Formulas of Popular Fiction: Elements of Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance, Religious and Mystery Novels" (2014). Her British Renaissance Re-Attribution and Modernization Series, https://anaphoraliterary.com/attribution changes world-history. She has been editing and writing for the independent, tri-annual Pennsylvania Literary Journal since 2009. And she started the second Anaphora periodical, Cinematic Codes Review, in 2016. She has presented her research at the MLA, SAMLA, EAPSU, SWWC, BWWC and many other conferences. She won the MLA Bibliography, Kentucky Historical Society and Brown University Military Collection fellowships.