Royer, Louis-Charles [pseud. Maria Luz; Pierre Devaux] (French, 1896–1970)

Louis-Charles Royer was a highly successful French author of erotic fiction, pulp romance, and sensationalist travelogues. Because he worked in an era of strict literary censorship, he relied on various pseudonyms to publish provocative texts, bypass publishing contracts, or write from different psychological angles.
His two most significant clandestine personas served distinct strategic purposes:
Maria Luz: A female persona who wrote intimate, faux-confessional diaries and coming-of-age erotica, most notably Puberté: Journal d’une écolière (1933). This mask allowed the work to masquerade as an authentic female psychological study, shielding it from the immediate censorship targeted at male erotic writers.
Pierre Devaux: A persona utilized to pivot away from explicit erotica into speculative fiction, popular science, and sociological commentary without alienating the core audience attached to his real name.