…Exploring the role of the prankster as artist, activist and social observer and the significance of the prank in society.
A LiteratEye Extra Editor’s Note: W.J. Elvin III’s LiteratEye column about literary hoaxes is featured here, and only here, every Friday. News Analysis: Who Wrote the Real Stuff in a Fake Book By a Fake Author Now Presumed Dead? by W.J. Elvin III [Editor’s note: See bottom of post for an update on this story] …
Continue reading “A LiteratEye Extra: The Mystery of the Missing Fake Author”
We’re pleased to announce the debut of LiteratEye, a new series, only on The Art of the Prank Blog, by W.J. Elvin III, editor and publisher of FIONA: Mysteries & Curiosities of Literary Fraud & Folly and the LitFraud blog. Literary deception is John’s “beat” and he has agreed to send us a “casebook” dispatch …
Continue reading “LiteratEye #1: George Washington Lied About Taxes”
John Elvin, aka W.J. Elvin III, whose columns and other contributions have often graced these pages (see Literateye and Ask the Fiddler for starters), is the author of Murder By Bay Breezes, a newly published mystery novel. From Amazon.com: Who killed Sammy Sanchez? Andy Holliday, recently signed on as feature writer for a travel magazine, …
Among many great discoveries that can be attributed to the Chinese is that Western consumers will buy shit if it”™s chocolate covered and packaged as an upscale brand. Our longtime fakes and frauds columnist W.J. Elvin takes a look at one little slice of the Chinese counterfeit market, collectible and rare coins, an area in …
Continue reading “China: The Alice”™s Restaurant of Fake Collectible Coins”
Submitted by W.J. Elvin III (whose LiteratEye series will resume shortly on The Art of the Prank after a brief hiatus): Why Donald Duck Is the Jerry Lewis of Germany by Susan Bernofsky Wall Street Journal May 23, 2009 Germany, the land of Goethe, Thomas Mann and Beethoven, has an unlikely pop culture hero: Donald …
Continue reading “Donald Duck in Germany: a Bird of Arts and Letters”