W.J. Elvin III - The Art of the Prank

July 17, 2009December 15, 2023

LiteratEye #22: Castaway Cuisine: How Do You Like Your Flamingo?

Here’s the twenty second 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 #22: Castaway Cuisine: How Do You Like Your Flamingo?
By W.J. Elvin III
July 17, 2009

200px-CC_No_10_Robinson_Crusoe-200 Back in the days of the sailing ships there were many tales of the perilous lives of castaways, some marooned – kicked off their ship on an island in the middle of nowhere — and others survivors of catastrophes. Robinson Crusoe’s story is one of the best-known castaway tales.

Crusoe first appeared without the author’s name (Daniel Defoe) and without any indication that it was a novel. A great many books of that era were first published with pious testimony as to their truth. And Crusoe is indeed based on a true story. I was researching that true story when I began wondering about castaway cuisine.

How would it go, washed up on a remote island, a thousand miles from the nearest cheeseburger? You’d probably do a quick check for cannibals or komodo dragons. And then, more than likely, begin hunting your next meal. Continue reading “LiteratEye #22: Castaway Cuisine: How Do You Like Your Flamingo?”

July 5, 2009December 15, 2023

Michael Jackson Signature Forgeries on the Rise

Submitted by W.J. Elvin III, as posted on International Autograph Collector’s Club and Dealer’s Alliance (IADA-CC):

Fake Michael Jackson autographs everywhere after death of the King of Pop, June 26, 2009

Beware of fake Michael Jackson signed items throughout the industry.

MJAutographing

Michael Jackson signed memorabilia and other artifacts have more then tripled in price and Forgeries are on the raise.The Internet is now bombarded with non authentic Michael Jackson signed items. Well they can only go up in value and in many cases by huge amounts. Beware as 70% of Michael Jackson autographs on eBay are forged or printed signatures. There will be loads of people out there trying to make some fast money off of Michael Jackson’s valued signature.

Actual Michael Jackson Signatures:
MJSignatures
Continue reading “Michael Jackson Signature Forgeries on the Rise”

June 26, 2009December 15, 2023

LiteratEye #19: Had It With Airport Hassles? Grab a Rug and Go!

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

flycarpeta 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. Continue reading “LiteratEye #19: Had It With Airport Hassles? Grab a Rug and Go!”

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”