You know how we all like to imagine ancient traditions, only to find that they started in the Nineteenth Century, or that they are inventions of an enthusiastic civil servant. In the same way I’d imagined that pseudonym Luther Blissett, freely used by all kinds of artistic and political groups, had been around for ever (or at least since the 60s, the political road-bump beyond which the laws of generational blindness prevent us looking). I was mildly disappointed to find that it only dates back to 1994, when a bunch of Italian anarchists stole the name of an unsuccessful footballer.
On the bright side, that means that the [book](http://www.wumingfoundation.com/italiano/downloads.shtml), the [writings](http://www.altx.com/manifestos/blisset.html) the [identities](http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/s.php?ref=search&init=q&q=luther blissett), the entire culture have sprung up in the last 15 years.