Whether or Not to Combine Authors

E. Knight and Eliza Knight seem to be the same historical fiction/romance author. A disambiguation notice was added to the former a few years ago, but it's been a while. Is there a reason to continue to keep them separate going forward?

Yes, there is a reason.

See: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/HelpThing:Author

Who Should/Shouldn't Get Combined . . . Should NOT:

A surname, or surname and initial, only with an author with that surname, even if it's the most popular. (Neither "Brown" nor "D.Brown" should be combined with "Dan Brown")

There are a slew of other others named Knight with a first name that begins with E. They should be kept separate

>2 lilithcat: Ahh, all right. I was coming at it from the standpoint that while others have the same surname and initial, she actively uses it as a penname. But, I understand now. Thanks for the info!

If you have evidence that any of the books listed under unknown are by the same author as those currently aliased into Eliza Knight, then you should edit the division so they are assigned properly.

They all seem to be by the same author so I have moved them.

What's the consensus on two initials and a surname? I.e. In the case of Jessica Knauss and J K Knauss . Is it treated the same as one initial + surname, like in my first example?

I've looked at both the HelpThing and FAQ pages and could only find the reference made to one initial.

>5 Carmen.et.Error:

In my view, usually you can combine two initials with the main author. An exception would be when there's a distinct author with the same initials and you can't be sure all the works on the two-inital author belong to the author you're combining into.

>5 Carmen.et.Error: I imagine a lot of Russian authors have been combined this way (it's common in Russian to refer to authors by two initials -- first name and patronymic -- and the surname, whereas in Anglophone contexts they're more likely to be known by their first name and surname, so keeping separate here on principle would seem likely be more of a hindrance than a help).

>5 Carmen.et.Error:

With two initials, you are generally safe to combine them. BUT, I would do a search on the surname to make sure that there isn't an author named "John Kenneth Knauss" (made up name).

Query: are Jessica Knauss and J K Knauss the same person as Dr. Jessica K. Knauss? If yes, combine away. If not, don't.

>8 lilithcat: All right, thanks. And yes, they are!

>7 spiphany: That's interesting. I didn't know that that was common for Russian authors. Thanks for the input!

An addendum: I think the general rule of not combining single initials + last names also calls for common sense. Lots of authors have pretty unique last names. If you have a unique-ish last name, and all the works are from the author you have in mind, I don't see a good reason to keep the names separate.