Northern Arizona University anthropologist Cathy Small has confirmed that she is the pseudonymous author of My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned By Becoming a Student. Small decided to acknowledge authorship of the controversial book after a New York Sun piece purporting to out her created a media frenzy at her campus. "I decided with my university that I was doing more harm to students at this point by not revealing my identity," Small told the Chronicle of Higher Education. Members of the press "were starting to come to campus and call campus and call my colleagues and call students on campus in order to get this confirmed. ... It seemed like it was producing the very problems that the anonymity was supposed to prevent."

You were on-target in your earlier post, that the outing was "inevitable," and I think Small and her publisher must have anticipated it.

Indeed, I'd say that the publisher at least must welcome all the coverage in the NY Sun, USAToday, and on-line (which has focused as much on the outing as the substance of the book). Since last week, the book has sold out at both Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.