How Much Is That Psychology Degree Worth?

[Harrison J Bounel]

--John Bear, who started out as John Klempner, but when my first book
was accepted by a big publisher (Harcourt), the publishers recommended
a different name, since there already was a bestselling author (well, he had
one bestseller) named John Klempner, and they felt one was enough.

Except that isn't quite the way you told it here in 1998...

When Marina and I were married, we decided not to keep either my birth name (Klempner) nor hers (Dobrolubova), nor, heaven forbid, to hyphenate. After much deliberation, we chose a new name for the two of us, Bear, and trudged into Circuit Court in the Chicago area, where we then lived, where our petition for legal name change was signed on December 12, 1969 by Judge Minard C. Hulse.

...or here in 2001:

As I have explained here, as often as necessary, when Marina (Doibrolubova) and John (Klempner) got married thirty-something years ago, the decision was made to choose a new name for us, rather than take either of those or, heaven forfend, go for hyphenation.

So which is it, the publisher wanting no more Klempners or the Klempners wanting no more unwieldy, ethnic-sounding names?  Or was it really because your father was blacklisted in Hollywood for his Communist activities and since you were marrying a Russian ("My wife, Marina Constantinovna Dobrolubova, whose family is from St. Petersburg...."), you wanted to fly under the radar of those who might raise an eyebrow about such things?