Follow-up: Literary Frauds Are Nothing New
It appears that literary fabrications are nothing new. Earlier last week I wrote about the most current author to fake her own memoir (see Woman admits fabricating memoir). And tonight I came across an article in the New York Times Book Section. Throughout history authors have been faking their way to literary stardom:
But the history of literary fakers stretches far, far back, at least to the 19th century, when a slave narrative published in 1863 by Archy Moore was revealed as a novel written by a white historian, Richard Hildreth, and into the early 20th, when Joan Lowell wrote a popular autobiography, "Cradle of the Deep," about her colorful childhood aboard a four-masted ship sailing the South Seas; in fact, she had grown up almost entirely in Berkeley, Calif.
I still don’t understand why these fakers, who can obviously write a good tale, would waste their talent and ruin their reputation by writing a fake portrayal of their past. It doesn’t make any sense. But I guess fraud of any type usually doesn’t make sense so I should stop racking my brain about it.
Regardless of motives, my next question is: Can a literary faker reclaim his/her reputation after such a fiasco and move forward with a successful literary career? It appears that James Frey is trying to jump-start his career with a new book being released in May 2008. Whether or not the literary community will forgive Frey and move on with him is a different question altogether.
What do you think? Do you think these literary fakers can still salvage their writing careers? Would you buy any of their future novels?
Read the New York Times article and decide for yourself:
A Family Tree of Literary Fakers
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