Literary forgery
Literary forgery (also known as literary mystification, literary fraud or literary hoax) is writing, such as a
History
Literary
Literary forgery has a long history. Onomacritus (c. 530 – 480 BCE) is among the most ancient known literary forgers. He invented prophecies, which he ascribed to the poet Musaeus.[1]
In the 3rd century CE, a certain Septimius produced what appeared to be a Latin translation of an eyewitness account of the
One of the longest lasting literary forgeries is by
Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770), the English poet and letter writer, began his brilliant medieval forgeries when little more than a child. While they brought him praise and fame after his death, his writing afforded little in the way of financial success and he committed suicide aged 17, penniless, alone and half-starved.
The English Mercurie appeared to be the first English newspaper when it was discovered in 1794. This was, ostensibly, an account of the English battle with the Spanish Armada of 1588, but was, in fact, written in the 18th century by Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, as a literary game with his friends.[4]
Literary forgery was promoted as a creative method by
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an antisemitic forged document first published in Russia in 1903–1904. The work purports to be details of a Jewish plan for world domination, and describes how Judaism will overthrow Christianity via control of the media, financial institutions, subverting the social order, and so on. The document was exposed as a forgery by English journalist Philip Graves in 1921. Graves showed the work drew as a source an 1864 political satire by Maurice Joly, The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, except presenting it as real. Similar exposes were published in other languages, but it did not matter; the Protocols were immensely popular among anti-semitic circles, who took it as proof of the evilness of the Jews.[5]
The Hitler Diaries were an example of a 20th-century forgery for money: Konrad Kujau, an East German forger, created diaries purportedly written by Adolf Hitler. His forgeries passed initial scrutiny enough for the magazine Stern to purchase them at great expense, but various errors and closer forensic analysis revealed them as fakes. Kujau was subsequently sent to prison for fraud, theft and forgery.[6]
Related issues
Fake memoirs
Some pieces' authors are uncontested, but the writers are untruthful about themselves to such a degree that the books are functionally forgeries – rather than forging in the name of an expert or authority, the authors falsely claim such authority for themselves. This usually takes the form of autobiographical works as fake memoirs. Its modern form is most common with "misery lit" books, in which the author claims to have suffered illness, parental abuse, and/or drug addiction during their upbringing, yet recovered well enough to write of their struggles. The 1971 book Go Ask Alice is officially anonymous, but claims to be taken from the diary of an actual drug abuser; later investigation showed that the work is almost certainly fictitious, however. A recent example is the 2003 book A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, wherein Frey claimed to experience fighting drug addiction in rehab; the claimed events were fictional, yet not presented as such.[7]
Other forms considered literary hoaxes are when an author asserts an identity and history for themselves that is not accurate. Asa Earl Carter wrote under the pseudonym Forrest Carter; Forrest Carter claimed to be a half-Cherokee descendent who grew up in native culture, but the real Asa Earl Carter was a white man from Alabama. Forrest Carter's persona thus possessed a similar false authenticity as a forged work would, in both their memoir and their fiction.[8] Similarly, Nasdijj and Margaret Seltzer also falsely claimed Native American descent to help market their works.[9][10] Danny Santiago claimed to be a young Latino growing up in East Los Angeles, yet the author (whose real name was Daniel Lewis James) was a Midwesterner in his 70s.[11]
Transparent literary fiction
Occasionally, it is unclear whether a work is fiction or a forgery. This generally occurs when a work is written intended as a piece of fiction, but through the mouthpiece of a famous historical character; the audience at the time understands that the work is actually written by others imagining what the historical persona might have written or thought. With later generations, this distinction is lost, and the work is treated as authoritatively by the real person. Later yet, the fact that the work was not really by the seeming author resurfaces. In the case of true transparent literary fictions, no deception is involved, and the issue is merely one of misinterpretation. However, this is fairly rare.
Examples of this may include several works of
For more disputed examples, some New Testament scholars believe that
See also
- Anthony Godby Johnson
- B. Wongar
- Clifford Irving
- Dave Pelzer
- False document
- Ghostwriter
- Hitler Diaries
- Journalistic scandal
- JT LeRoy
- Outline of forgery
- Pseudepigrapha
References
- ISBN 0062012614, pp. 39-40
- ISBN 0415214645
- ISBN 978-1405180894
- ^ Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Volume 9, January 18, 1840, pp. 17-19
- ^ Graves, Philip (1921). The Truth about the Protocols: A Literary Forgery. The Times of London.
- ISBN 978-0-8131-1739-3.
- ^ "A Million Little Lies". The Smoking Gun. July 23, 2010.
- ^ Randall, Dave (September 1, 2002). "The tall tale of Little Tree and the Cherokee who was really a Klansman". The Independent.
- ISBN 978-1594034862
- ^ Menand, Louis (2018). "Literary Hoaxes and the Ethics of Authorship". The New Yorker. Condé Nast.
- ^ Folkart, Burt A. "OBITUARIES : Daniel James : Writer Who Masqueraded as a Latino."Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 21 May 1988. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://articles.latimes.com/1988-05-21/news/mn-2879_1_daniel-james>
- ^ Jude-2 Peter, Volume 50, Word Biblical Commentary.
- ISBN 9780199928033.
Bibliography
- Bart D. Ehrman Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics, Oxford University Press, USA (2012) 978-0199928033
- ISBN 978-1290475143
- Anthony Grafton Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in Western Scholarship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990) ISBN 0-691-05544-0
- Ian Haywood The making of history: a study of the literary forgeries of James Macpherson and Thomas Chatterton in relation to eighteenth-century ideas of history and fiction, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1986, ISBN 978-0838632611
- Lee Israel Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger Simon & Schuster; 1st edition (2008)ISBN 978-1416588672
- Melissa Katsoulis Telling Tales: A History of Literary Hoaxes (London: Constable, 2009) ISBN 978-1-84901-080-1
- Richard Landon Literary forgeries & mystifications, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library U. of Toronto, 2003, ISBN 978-0772760456
- Robin Myers Fakes and Frauds: Varieties of Deception In Print & Manuscript (New Castle: Oak Knoll Press 1996) ISBN 0-906795-77-X
- K. K. Ruthven Faking Literature Cambridge University Press (2001) ISBN 978-0521669658
- John Whitehead This Solemn Mockery: The Art of Literary Forgery (London: Arlington Books 1973) ISBN 0-85140-212-7
- Joseph Rosenblum Practice to Deceive: The Amazing Stories of Literary Forgery's Most Notorious Practitioners (New Castle: Oak Knoll Press, 2000) ISBN 1-58456-010-X
External links
- Books about literary forgery Archived 2008-05-15 at the About.com
- The Recourse of Hoax: Orthodox Modern Readings of Araki Yasusada and Alan Sokal