The Irony of Literary Fraud

There have been several prominent cases of literary fraud in the past few years, causing embarrassment to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey who have promoted their works. The irony of literary fraud is that fraudulent biographies and memoirs could have been written and marketed as interesting fiction. Instead, writers' desire for fame and notoriety lead them to falsify their experiences and pass off lies at truth, only leading to their inevitable exposure.

Margaret Seltzer, who wrote the "memoir" Love and Consequences under the pseudonym Margaret B. Jones, was exposed as a fraud in early 2008. As it turned out, her claims to have a part-Native American ancestry, a childhood in foster homes, and ties with dangerous gangs was all an attempt to create something more exciting and marketable than her middle-class WASP identity. Such a story could have been published as fiction and raised the same concerns about the conditions of foster children and minorities. It would not, however, have caused such embarrassment for the publisher due to their lack of fact checking.

Later in the year Herman Rosenblat, the author of Angel at the Fence, was exposed as a fraud for having fabricated the story of he and his wife meeting through the fence at a concentration camp. Oprah called it the "greatest love story." Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years, another story of the Holocaust in which a survivor escapes to live with wolves, was published in 1997 and later exposed as a fraud by its publisher. Such literary fraud minimizes true tales of the Holocaust and its survivors, such as Elie Wiesel's Night; and yet it could have found a wide audience, even from Oprah, as inspirational fiction.

James Frey received great publicity on Oprah for his 2003 "autobiography" A Million Little Pieces, in which he claimed to have an extensive and sordid history of drug problems and trouble with the law. After investigating police reports, The Smoking Gun concluded that the book went beyond simple exaggeration; much of his supposed criminal history was simply false. He also appropriated a tragedy - a train accident which claimed two lives - as his own, acting disrespectfully against the real victims of this tragedy. Despite lying in his book and even threatening legal action against those who would expose him, Frey's fame seems to have protected him from real consequences to his writing career. He has even been offered a book deal for a series of Young Adult science fiction novels.

That is the real irony of literary fraud: that good writers choose to pass of lies as truth instead of putting their talents to good use. But if publishers continue publishing such manuscripts without vetting, and if a gullible public continues purchasing such stories and paying proven liars for their future work, where is the incentive to tell the truth? Perhaps even exposure only serves to bring these writers more publicity which they do not justly deserve.

Sources

A Million Little Lies from The Smoking Gun

Faked Holocaust Memoir: Den of Lies from the Boston Globe

Holocaust Survivor's Love Story Exposed as a Fraud from the Telegraph

James Frey Collaborating on a Novel for Young Adults from the New York Times

Tracking the Fallout of (Another) Literary Fraud from the New York Times