Submitted by W.J. Elvin III:

What If You Pull a Literary Hoax and Nobody Notices?
by Peter Monaghan
The Chronicle Review
August 3, 2009

Perpetrators of literary hoaxes often like to be discovered, if only for recognition of their cleverness. But for someone or someones at the literary-studies journal Modernism/Modernity, that gratification has been a while coming.

In 2004 the journal, which is the quarterly of the Modernist Studies Association, ran a review essay of the writer David Foster Wallace’s story collection Oblivion. The essay was a put-on, a leg-pull, a sham, in ways that take some explaining for nonspecialists in recent American fiction. But no one publicly called attention to the con until last month. (more…)

Here’s the twenty fourth 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. In this installment, Elvin continues his survey of literary fraud focused on Australia…

LiteratEye #24: Home-Made Hocus Pocus Masquerades as Wisdom of an Ancient People
By W.J. Elvin III
July 31, 2009

“Jangga Meenya Bomunggur.”

In other words, “The smell of the white man is killing us.”

That’s from the Dumbartung Aboriginal Corporation’s mission statement, a very powerful statement and well worth checking out.


The Dumbartung group is an arts advocacy organization in Australia.

One thing the indigenous people find stinky about the white man, or in this case, woman, is exploitation through false claims of association and knowledge.

There have been several cases of authors making false claims of that sort. One in particular provoked Aborigine delegations to track down the perpetrator, Marlo Morgan.

They tried to confront Morgan, author of Mutant Message Down Under, in the United States and Japan.

Morgan made millions from Mutant. In it, she claimed she was kidnapped by a mysterious band of Aborigines, forced to go on desert walkabout, and ultimately initiated into realms of secret knowledge. (more…)

Here’s the twentieth 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 #20: Can a Spoof Morph Into the Real Deal?
By W.J. Elvin III
July 3, 2009

Is it possible for a hoax, a masterpiece of ridicule, to morph into a respected example of exactly what it was meant to spoof? That’s a serious question regarding the lines quoted above, a snippet of work of the poor lost legendary poet, Ern Malley.

An obscure, young Australian insurance salesman and part-time watch repairman in the days prior to World War II, Malley never lived to see his work become world famous. Well, for that matter, he never lived at all. (more…)

Here’s the nineteenth 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 #19: Had It With Airport Hassles? Grab a Rug and Go!
By W.J. Elvin III
June 26, 2009

Last week we looked into imaginary destinations so it seems reasonable to follow up with a look at imaginary transportation – from the perspective of literary hoaxes, of course.

This “hoax,” as it is now known, comes from Australia, though you will now find it scattered around the world-wide web as genuine. It claims to report new findings regarding flying carpets, also known as magic carpets.

Australia sometimes seems a hotbed for literary mischief. It’s probably no hotter than any other bed, just a society engaged in a struggle for cultural identity that makes for a climate more sensitive to fakery. Here in America such things are a bit of yawn. We’ve had fifty years or so of journalists educating us to the fact that our culture is a gob of scandal and artifice, so that today, who cares?

But back to Australia, thinking back to the spinning globe on a brass or wooden holder that decorated the high school geography classroom, maybe it has to do with how Australians walk around upside down. You don’t see as much literary foolery coming out of, say, Canada, where people are more straight-up. (more…)

Here’s the tenth 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 #10: Poetic Injustice
By W.J. Elvin III
April 17, 2009

Every generation has its crop of dazed and confused kids, looking for somebody to be. Years ago, the actor James Dean was somebody to be. And then, at the age of 24, piloting his new silver Porsche 550 Spyder, he left us wannabes behind and headed for the stars.

So I was enthused, in a nostalgic way, when I discovered a book, “Rebel With a Pen: the Poetry of James Dean.” How wonderful. I mean, that was the Beat era, so I figured reading Dean would be reminiscent of Jack Kerouac and the “sporadic bop prosody” poetry gang.

Not exactly.

The fact is, James Dean didn’t write these poems. But you won’t learn that from the book’s cover, where all indications are that it’s genuine James. (more…)

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

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. (more…)

Here’s the fourth installment 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.

LiteratEye #4: The Fix Is In: Planted Documents
By W.J. Elvin III
March 6, 2009

The recent fuss about President Obama”™s birth certificate started me thinking about the broader topic of “planted” documents. Three modern cases, involving murder, fraud and theft came to mind.

The first case features a brilliant fellow, for a time a highly respected document dealer, who concluded his career as an expert forger by committing two murders.

It is the dream of every “picker” to be rummaging through the bargain bin of a second hand bookstore only to discover a real rarity. That actually happened for Mark Hofmann. The twist was that Hofmann had planted this particular document in the bin in the first place. (more…)

Here’s the third installment 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.

And, as an added treat, here’s an article about author, W.J. Elvin III, from the Cumberland Times-News that appeared this week.

LiteratEye #3: Really Great Sermon, Sir; Could I Have Your Autograph?
By W.J. Elvin III
February 27, 2009

It began with an innocent question posed on one of the “ask the expert” sites. Someone wanted to know the value of a Superman autograph. The kindly expert explained that Superman was a fictitious character, and that there might be some value to autographs of persons who had played the role.

That got me thinking about fictitious autographs. Not fake autographs of real people but those of, say, Sherlock Holmes or Paul Bunyon or Nancy Drew. I wondered if anyone had tried to sell such a thing.

I asked around. Oddly, the name that came up most often from dealers was “Jesus.”

Now, that poses a dilemma. (more…)

Here’s the second installment 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.

LiteratEye #2: Author Keven McQueen Recalls A Master Prankster of Yesteryear
By W.J. Elvin III
February 20, 2009

It is quite possible that the name “Joseph Mulhattan” does not set bells ringing and lights flashing in the minds of modern readers, even if those readers seriously appreciate pranks and hoaxes. Keven McQueen may correct that regrettable state of affairs one day, when he finalizes his book on one of the master pranksters in journalism history.

Mulhattan’s bizarre news articles – perhaps hundreds – were often swallowed whole by the press and public of his era. “Mulhattan convinced our ancestors that a lost race of Aztecs had lived in Kentucky, that a meteor had demolished a sizable portion of Texas, that trained monkeys were a threat to American labor and that two moons orbited the earth. The last two hoaxes even fooled some scientists,” McQueen told me, adding: “Some of his tall tales survive today in the form of what we now call urban legends.”

Mulhattan was a very successful traveling salesman by trade but it was his sensational “news” that secured a position in the national spotlight. According to McQueen, Mulhattan was as well known in his day as Mark Twain or Jules Verne. He convinced many readers that the bodies of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were to be exhumed and put on display, viewable for a fee, in celebration of the Centennial in 1876. A story attributed to him about David Lang, a Kentuckian who disappeared in thin air before witnesses, still appears today as a “strange but true” report. His tale of trained monkeys replacing farm laborers provoked angry editorials and brought hate mail to the innocent farmer whom Mulhattan mischievously credited with the innovation. (more…)

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

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. (more…)

Anger, sadness over fabricated Holocaust story
By Hillel Italie
1010WINS
December 28, 2008

New York (AP) — It’s the latest story that touched, and betrayed, the world.

“Herman Rosenblat and his wife are the most gentle, loving, beautiful people,” literary agent Andrea Hurst said Sunday, anguishing over why she, and so many others, were taken by Rosenblat’s story of love born on opposite sides of a barbed-wire fence at a concentration camp.

“I question why I never questioned it. I believed it; it was an incredible, hope-filled story.”

On Saturday, Berkley Books canceled Rosenblat’s memoir, “Angel at the Fence,” after he acknowledged that he and his wife did not meet, as they had said for years, at a sub-camp of Buchenwald, where she allegedly sneaked him apples and bread. The book was supposed to come out in February.

Rosenblat, 79, has been married to the former Roma Radzicky for 50 years, since meeting her on a blind date in New York. In a statement issued Saturday through his agent, he described himself as an advocate of love and tolerance who falsified his past to better spread his message. (more…)