Reader Beware: Fakes and Forgeries
Presented by Dr. Craig Abbott
Thursday, September 16, 1999, 7:30pm
Staff Lounge, Founders Memorial Library (Lower Level)
"History is replete with fakes and forgeries." So started the first program of the Friends of NIU Libraries for the 1999-2000 season, "Reader Beware: Fakes and Forgeries," presented by Dr. Craig Abbott, director of undergraduate English on campus. Dr. Abbott's areas of specialization includes bibliography, textual studies, and twentieth-century American poetry.
While focused mostly on fakes and forgeries in literature, Dr. Abbott reminded the audience that fakes are not limited to literature, but can also be found in other fields, such as, science and archaeology. They can also be found where least expected, for example, while Gutenberg's invention of movable type holds enormous significance in the history of printing and communication, the Gutenberg Bible is a facsimile, or fake, of the original scriptorium edition. The notion of reprints and facsimiles as fakes has been carried to such an extent to cause one scholar to ask, perhaps facetiously, "Fakes and forgeries, what else is there in English?"
For much of the program, Dr. Abbott provided examples of fakes and forgeries, aided with slide pictures. While documents may look original, many are reprints, with some being quite old and valuable in themselves. While often times difficult to detect, tell-tail signs of fakes can include yellowed paper instead of the original non-yellowed rag paper, and type fonts that may show variations from the original.
Travel is often an area of deception where much hyperbole and conjecture are found. For example, George Psalmanazar forged a fake travel guide to Formosa in the early eighteenth century. The guide included a fake Formosan alphabet, sketches of inhabitants, complete with fake costumes, and a fake language created out of gibberish. Considering that few, if any, traveled to Formosa during this time, the book was believed and became widely popular. In 1928, Alger: A Biography Without a Hero by Herbert R. Mayes, a biography of Horatio Alger, was published. The book was a fabrication and the author confessed to making up the text. Fabrications have also appeared in standard reference works, for instance, Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, 7 vols. (1894). After a preliminary check of the entries, it was estimated by one reviewer that at least forty seven "biographical ghosts," that is, biographies persons who never lived, were included.
There are many other examples of fakes and forgeries, especially that found in plagiarized text. Extended investigation is often required to prove a document fake. Abbott ended his presentation with a personal example from his own investigation of the poet Scharmel Iris. Scharmel Iris, a popular poet of his day, not only borrowed from the poetry of others, but also built a reputation by using fake endorsements from other notable poets, used, in turn, to promote his works. As many believed the endorsements, he was recognized by many of his day as an established poet.
-- Byron Anderson
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Last Updated: August 22, 2007