[antedating] ghost, v. "to write something anonymously for someone else"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED offers 1922.

  1914 _The German Army from the Inside: By a British Officer Who Has Served in It_ (N.Y.: George H. Doran) 32: Many of my fellow-cadets were extremely weak in English or French, and when papers were given in these subjects, they invariably came to me. By this "ghosting" I was able to make quite a good thing in the shape of hard-boiled eggs or meat rissoles.

  JL


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