Major Owen Hatteras (1912–1923) is a composite personage and pseudonym created and employed by H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan for The Smart Set literary magazine and adapted by Willard Huntington Wright during his short tenure as editor.
The pseudonym was used to critique American (“Puritan”) traditions and ideals, such as marriage, religion, and academe, while protecting Mencken and Nathan's own reputations.
During his service, he was still able to write twelve pieces for The Smart Set during the war years, despite Mencken's claim that “Hatteras was too proud to write,” mocking President Woodrow Wilson’s statement that “there is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight.”[1] The creation of Owen Hatteras was meant to be an experimental prelude to Mencken and Nathan's desired weekly, The Blue Review.
The Smart Set’s publisher, John Adams Thayer, was excited by the idea, but suggested that they first try out the critical tone on their current audience.
Hatteras mocked with false respect the small towns’ editorial efforts, denigrating their inherent racism, pro-War sentiments, Fundamentalism, Prohibition, etc.