Why I Write Under a Pseudonym
Author David Hirshberg (also known as Fredric Price, CEO of biotech companies) shares why he writes under a pseudonym.
As Fredric Price, I spend my days navigating drug development, regulatory agencies, and the financial markets as the founder, Chairman, and CEO of NBO Pharma Inc., while at other times, I am David Hirshberg, the author of the historical literary fiction novels My Mother’s Son (2018) and Jacobo’s Rainbow (2021). My third novel, Crossing the Bronx, will be released on June 2, 2026.
Crossing the Bronx is a historical literary novel set primarily in the 1950s in The Bronx. A modern retelling of the Jacob and Esau story from Genesis, it centers on romance, commitments, beliefs, and triumphs over adversities (lies, theft, corruption, murder, concealment, prejudice). Through vivid descriptions, perceptive insights, humor, and sensitivity, my goal is to have the reader identify with characters who come to life in a realistic fashion to illustrate who we are, how we behave, and what causes us to change.
Crossing the Bronx completes my Mid-Century Trilogy, following My Mother’s Son and Jacobo’s Rainbow. These works illuminate the 1950s and 60s, a time framed by World War II and the Vietnam War, when immigrants began to shed their outsider status and integrate into the fabric of American society, cloaked with both its goodness and strife.
When I started writing, it didn’t occur to me not to use my given name. But as I thought about how to introduce myself into a field where I was a complete unknown, the advantages of a pseudonym became apparent in the age of social media. An Internet search for the author Fredric Price would generate multiple hits on me as a biotech entrepreneur, which would have caused people to think they have landed on the wrong site, or worse, that they would automatically think that my writing is about the drug business…and that could not be good literary fiction. So, the idea of the separate identity was born; it avoided confusion and allowed me to have two personas.
For a pseudonym, I adopted the first name of my father-in-law (David Streger) and the last name of my maternal grandfather (Bill Hirshberg) as a tribute to their impact on my life.
I thought nothing could surpass the thrill of managing the development of life-saving drugs, but I found that immersing myself in the process of creating literary fiction gave me the same sense of accomplishment. The truth was that I couldn’t give up the former to focus exclusively on writing. Something had to give, since there’s only a finite amount of time, so I made the decision to jettison some hobbies and personal activities in favor of juggling both my work and writing simultaneously.
My work and writing worlds can’t be more different. And yet, there is one major element that dominates both of them: storytelling. In the entrepreneurial life sciences field, it’s the story you tell about your company that weighs most heavily on potential investors, patients, partners, employees, consultants, and vendors. It’s not enough to recite the technology, the science behind it, or the numbers from financial statements. The narrative of how the product will be developed, used by patients, and impacts overall health is the key to sustaining interest in the company, and getting the funds necessary to get products developed and then approved by the FDA. I found that this talent for storytelling could translate into the writing of historical literary fiction, a field that I have always enjoyed immensely.
In fiction, storytelling becomes a way to examine how people live through forces beyond their control. In both cases, storytelling becomes a tool for making the invisible visible, whether that’s a future treatment or forgotten lives impacted by history.
What I have found fascinating is that when I appear in front of a group (in person or online) as a writer, I become David Hirshberg, not Fredric Price. I am frequently asked questions not only about my writing, but about literature in general, the state of the book business, the cancellation of authors or subjects, the economics of the publishing industry, and how to navigate the myriad steps it takes for a new author to get published. David Hirshberg has opinions on these topics that are more credible than if Fredric Price were to speak about them.
To be clear, I don’t hide that I write under a pseudonym. The one question I am frequently asked is along these lines: “If you were retired as a CEO and only focused on writing fiction as a second career, would you have still used a pseudonym?” My response is always, “Yes.” The separation suits me well, as it allows me the privilege of re-invention without throwing out the prior act.
I have also had the pleasure of a completely unanticipated result of the adoption of my pseudonym: I have been introduced to a distant cousin! I received an email from a David Hirshberg who told me (tongue in cheek) that he had to stop taking credit for writing novels from friends who had no idea he was not just “a real estate guy.” Through a family genealogical tree that my uncle had created, I found out that the David Hirshberg who contacted me is a third cousin. We met in Vermont (where he lives) and exchanged fascinating family stories that were eerily similar.
Fredric Price has spent his career in the pharmaceutical business, having been CEO of five biotech companies, chairman of eight, been involved in eight new drug approvals, and is the co-inventor of 18 US patents. He has a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Westchester County with his wife and two sporting dogs. He has three sons, and four grandsons, still waiting for his first double-x chromosome descendant.
Check out David Hirshberg's Crossing the Bronx here:
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