literary fraud - The Art of the Prank

April 3, 2009December 15, 2023

LiteratEye #8: Categorizing Castaneda

Here’s the eighth installment of LiteratEye, a series found 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.

LiteratEye #8: Categorizing Castaneda
By W.J. Elvin III
April 3, 2009

461707139_7b2160a8ba_o-200 This column was going to be a subjective list of the top twenty false memoirs of the modern era, but I got sidetracked thinking about that man of mystery and mischief, Carlos Castaneda.

Literary detectives tend to lump Castaneda in with fakers like James Frey, J.T. Leroy, Norma Khouri and various other fraudsters and hoaxers. Some have been “featured artists” in this column and others are backstage awaiting their cue.

The slippery standard they are judged by is “authenticity.” The way the critics see it is that if you say your book is true, well, then it shouldn’t be a big stinking heap of bullshit.

On the other hand, you have those appalled by “radical individualism,” their contention being that if there is cultural truth in the book then it’s not a con. Those waters get awfully deep and theoretical.

At a depth I can handle, the debate is about whether to judge Castaneda as a scholarly anthropologist obliged to operate within certain narrow professional standards. Continue reading “LiteratEye #8: Categorizing Castaneda”

March 27, 2009December 15, 2023

LiteratEye #7: Faux Poe

Here’s the seventh installment of LiteratEye, a series found 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.

LiteratEye #7: Faux Poe
By W.J. Elvin III
March 27, 2009

This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe. If you keep track of these things, you’re no doubt amazed at the creative ways people find to connect to the master of the macabre. The calendar is cluttered with related events put on by institutions, communities and individuals nationwide.

Poe offers a goldmine of opportunities for those intrigued by literary fraud, hoaxes, mystifications and riddles. He left behind many puzzles to be solved, in his writing and in how he lived his brief life. For instance, he fought many back-and-forth battles over plagiarism, sometimes the accused and sometimes the accuser. On the other side of it, his fame made him a magnet for forgers, pranksters, satirists and others hitching a ride on his star.

In prowling old literary magazines, an avocation which no doubt fills endless hours of your leisure time, you can hardly help but notice how often others imitated Poe’s style. Digging into it, there is quite a bit of controversy over what he wrote or didn’t write, much of it unresolved. It’s confounding how many lesser lights tried to pass off their work as that of the master. And then there’s the on-going question of how many, if any, succeeded. Continue reading “LiteratEye #7: Faux Poe”

March 20, 2009December 15, 2023

LiteratEye #6: Tracking an Elusive Author

Here’s the sixth installment of LiteratEye, a series found 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.

LiteratEye #6: Tracking an Elusive Author
By W.J. Elvin III
March 19, 2009

pastore-book In the last column there was a sort of drive-by mention of author Stephen R. Pastore and the possibility that some of his prominence and recognition as an author is self-imposed. That observation was inspired by a reporter”s challenge to him and some questions raised by Wikipedia editors regarding his credibility. So far, rather than coming to the fore in his own defense, Pastore seems to be fading deeper into the literary mists.

This is beginning to look like a story that The New York Times and Washington Post will be digging into soon. So of course I wanted The Art of the Prank Blog readers to be able to say they saw it here, some of it at any rate, first. Why haven”t the heavyweights weighed in already? Well, venturing a guess, Pastore hasn”t yet appeared on Oprah, and that, the way I”ve got it figured, is the trigger for national media attention these days. First you spoof Oprah, then you show up on big media radar.

Pastore is a winner of the Aldous Huxley Prize for literature. The prize may not ring bells of recognition with you, but it was listed on a site devoted to literary awards. However, that site has since disappeared. When you dig it out of the Internet archives, there is indeed mention such an award, but details have been scrubbed. Continue reading “LiteratEye #6: Tracking an Elusive Author”

March 13, 2009December 15, 2023

LiteratEye #5: A Case of Cooked Books?

Here’s the fifth installment of LiteratEye, a series found 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.

LiteratEye #5: A Case of Cooked Books?
By W.J. Elvin III
March 13, 2009

A Rock and a Hard Place Scanning the big picture – a controversial book plus all the investigations and commentary over the years – well, looks to me like more red flags than at a Stalin-era May Day parade in Moscow. The book in question is the excellently written tragic autobiography of Anthony Godby Johnson, age, at the time he wrote it, 14.

“Tony” suffered from AIDS, TB, syphilis, loss of a leg, loss of a testicle, fifty or so broken bones that healed badly, and a host of other serious traumas such as forced prostitution to a celebrity sex ring. He is now reported by his adoptive father to be a happy and healthy young man in his 30s, or maybe late 20s. His story inspired a novel, TV specials and a film – mostly, it should added, from a somewhat doubting perspective.

A big problem was, and is, only one reporter of the many who have questioned the truth of the book actually saw Tony, and even that one reporter now has doubts about the glimpse she got. On the other hand, several people have signed affidavits swearing they know Tony, and still others have made the claim informally.

The book, A Rock and a Hard Place came out about fifteen years ago but has re-appeared in recent news stories due to problems faced by psychologist Marc Zackheim, the adoptive father who recently cited his experience raising Tony as a credential in applying to run a home for troubled boys on the island of Guam. He was awarded the contract, but then a government auditor on the island raised questions resulting in cancellation.

The questions come easy, the answers are another story. Continue reading “LiteratEye #5: A Case of Cooked Books?”

February 13, 2009January 15, 2019

LiteratEye #1: George Washington Lied About Taxes

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 each week for the foreseeable future. Says John, “When literary fraud is exposed it’s usually pretty well covered in the mainstream press, but seems to me they often overlook a good story in who dug it out and how. Sometimes it’s forensics but other times it’s just chance, someone remembers something that puts the work in a questionable light.”

Here, in honor of President’s Day, is John’s first post:

LiteratEye #1: George Washington Lied About Taxes
by W.J. Elvin III
February 13, 2009

Prepare to be shocked and appalled

Minute Book 1756 page 463 Few believe, surely, that George Washington never told a lie, or even that he confessed to chopping down one of his father’s cherry trees, as his early biographer Parson Mason Locke Weems suggested. Weems saw nothing wrong with a bit of fabrication when it served his purposes. Neither, for that matter, did Washington.

Well, if that’s so, what lie did George Washington tell? Name one. No doubt revisionist historians could provide a few dozen, but up until recently I certainly couldn’t have done it. I ran across this little nugget while researching other matters in old newspapers, the sort of thing I do in putting together Fiona, a magazine about literary fraud and folly.

I ran my discovery past Rick Shenkman, editor of History News Network, and he replied that there is no mention of it in the papers of George Washington. I don’t know if that means “and therefore it’s a crock,” or perhaps “good for you, you’ve rescued a valuable anecdote from the dustbin of history.” Possibly neither.

At any rate, evidence in colonial court records, stolen during the Civil War from Fairfax Court House in Virginia but since recovered, indicates that George Washington once faced charges of “swearing a false oath” – that is to say, telling a lie in order to dodge taxes. Continue reading “LiteratEye #1: George Washington Lied About Taxes”