January 22 2009
Written by Autograph
Collector's Daily
Top 5 Faked
Memoirs
Oprah Winfrey was
recently embarrassed
yet again when a
memoir she had
promoted on her
television show and
in her book club was
revealed to have
been faked. The
book, "Angel at the
Fence," told the
story of a young boy
and girl, each on
the opposite side of
a Buchenwald fence
in Nazi Germany.
Little Roma would
throw apples to her
little boyfriend
Herman, her love
keeping him alive
through the horrors
of the Holocaust.
It was, Oprah said,
"the greatest love
story" she had ever
heard. It was also a
fake; the author,
Herman Rosenblat,
admitted that he and
his wife actually
met on a blind date
years ago in
Manhattan. The book
has since been
scrubbed, though
plans for a film
version of the tale
are continuing.
It is the latest in
a series of faked
(or partially faked)
memoirs. Among the
more memorable:
1. "A
Million Little
Pieces," by James
Frey
The most
high-profile
Oprah-endorsed
fiction parading as
memoir, James Frey's
best-seller "A
Million Little
Pieces" told the
moving story of a
young alcoholic drug
abuser who struggles
to get clean and
sober in a treatment
center. The 2003
book was praised by
many and heavily
promoted in Oprah's
book club before
being revealed as
largely faked.
Frey's publishers at
first defended the
book, but as
evidence mounted
that much of it had
been fabricated,
they offered refunds
for fiction sold as
fact and added
disclaimers to later
editions.
2. "A Rock
and a Hard Place,"
by Anthony Godby
Johnson
When it comes to
tragic stories,
Anthony Godby
Johnson's is without
equal. According to
his 1993 book, "A
Rock and a Hard
Place," his parents
beat him, allowed
their friends to
rape him, and denied
him food and a bed.
In 1989, when he was
eleven and on the
verge of suicide,
Tony fled from his
horrific abuse and
into the arms of a
New York City couple
who adopted him. Yet
there was more
tragedy lying in
wait: Tony soon
found out that he
was dying of AIDS.
Tony's book garnered
much acclaim, with
USA Today calling
Tony a "boy with a
powerful will to
love." Yet a few
intrepid journalists
unmasked "Tony" as
not merely a
pseudonym but a
fictional character;
none of his
information was
verified, and Tony's
inspirational story
was a complete
fiction.
3. "Satan's
Underground," by
Lauren Stratford
"Satan's
Underground" was a
1991 book in which
the author described
her first-hand
experience inside a
Satanic cult.
Stratford's book
included horrific
depictions of
baby-killing
rituals,
pornography,
torture, rape, and
other abuse. Like
Anthony Godby
Johnson, Stratford
claimed to have been
continually
physically and
sexually abused by
her parents and
forced into
prostitution. She
also described being
locked in a metal
drum with the bodies
of four babies who
had been sacrificed
to Satan. The book
became a
best-seller, helping
fuel the "Satanic
panic" hysteria that
swept across America
in the late 1980s
and early 1990s. Yet
skeptical
investigation
revealed that the
story was a complete
hoax. None of
Stratford's claims
were true; every
gruesome,
sensational detail
was made up.
Stratford later
changed her name and
began claiming to be
a Jewish Holocaust
survivor, still
trying to wring
sympathy from the
public.
4. "I,
Rigoberta Menchu,"
by Rigoberta Menchu
In her 1984 memoir,
"I, Rigoberta Menchu,"
Guatemalan rights
activist Rigoberta
Menchu described her
struggles as a poor,
uneducated, and
oppressed Quiche
Indian. Using her
best-selling book as
a platform, Menchu
became an
international
spokeswoman for the
rights of indigenous
people. She was
given honorary
doctorates, and even
awarded the 1992
Nobel Peace Prize.
"I, Rigoberta Menchu"
is required reading
in many universities
as a true,
first-hand account
of native Indians'
struggles in
Guatemala. Only it
isn't: a decade-long
investigation by an
American
anthropologist
revealed that while
some parts of her
memoir are true,
large sections of it
were simply
fabricated, with
Menchu lying about
significant aspects
of her past. Menchu
at first blamed
inaccuracies on the
book's translator,
but eventually
admitted that some
parts of her memoir
were faked.
5. "The
Diary of Jack the
Ripper," by James
Maybrick
Jack the Ripper, the
London serial killer
who took the lives
of five women in
1888, has captured
the public's
imagination for over
a century. The
Ripper has been the
subject of countless
books, articles,
films, and
television shows, so
when in 1993 Warner
Books was set to
publish the
recently-found diary
of the infamous
killer, it was
poised to become a
best-seller. In his
diary, a Liverpool
merchant named James
Maybrick confessed
his double life as
the infamous Ripper.
Yet through forensic
document analysis it
was revealed it a
hoax, a faked memoir
dating back to the
1920s. The publisher
pulled the book, and
Maybrick's legacy
remained intact.