Middle Name is a mystery short story by Isaac Asimov.
Part of the Black Widowers series, it was first published in the January 1980 collection Casebook of the Black Widowers. It was later collected in The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov.
Summary[]
At a Black Widowers banquet, the conversation turns to the club's men-only policy, with some members expressing discomfort over its inherent sexism. The host, Mario Gonzalo, has invited his guest, Lionel Washburn, hoping to draw him out on a personal matter. Washburn, a handsome and successful stockbroker, eventually reveals his anguish over a failed relationship with a fiercely feminist magazine illustrator.
Washburn explains that he was deeply in love with the woman, but their relationship was a constant battle over gender politics. She ultimately rejected him, claiming he had failed a test she devised to see if he was a man she could live with. The test was to provide a one-syllable middle name that "every schoolchild knows—and yet doesn't know." She married another man, whom Washburn considers inferior, and told Washburn that this other man had passed the test. Washburn feels not only rejected but humiliated, believing the test was a sham designed to make him feel foolish.
The Black Widowers take up the challenge. They debate various possibilities, considering historical figures with middle names, names hidden by pseudonyms, and the feminist angle that the answer might involve a woman whose contributions have been overlooked. They suggest names like "S" for Harry S. Truman, "Ward" for Julia Ward Howe, and "May" for Louisa May Alcott, but Washburn reveals that the answer she gave him was a feminine name, though he refuses to say which one.
The waiter Henry intervenes. Combining the clues—a one-syllable middle name, something every schoolchild knows but doesn't truly know, and a feminist context—he deduces the answer. He recalls that every schoolchild knows the author George Eliot from reading Silas Marner, but doesn't know that "George Eliot" was the pseudonym for Mary Ann Evans. The one-syllable middle name is "Ann." Washburn confirms this is correct. While pained that his rival solved the puzzle, he is ultimately somewhat consoled that the test was, in fact, a fair and solvable intellectual challenge.
Characters[]
Black Widowers[]
- Mario Gonzalo (the host)
- Thomas Trumbull
- Geoffrey Avalon
- Emmanuel Rubin
- Roger Halsted
- James Drake
- Henry (the waiter)
Others[]
- Lionel Washburn (the guest)
- The Feminist Magazine Illustrator
- The Advertising Copywriter
Historical / Literary Figures Mentioned[]
- George Eliot (pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans)
- Harry S. Truman
- Julia Ward Howe
- Louisa May Alcott
- Woodrow Wilson
- Calvin Coolidge
- Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
- Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Susan B. Anthony
- Carrie Chapman Catt
- Helen Gurley Brown
- Gloria Steinem
- Betty Friedan
- Julius Caesar (Gaius Julius Caesar)
- Cassius (Gaius Cassius Longinus)
- Peter the Great (Peter Alexeievich Romanov)