Fakes, Forgeries, and Fictitious Authors

1

The Castle of Otranto

by Horace Walpole

3,776 members

126 reviews

3.1

2 Members: spiphany, rgashby
Explanations: spiphany: Originally published under a pseudonym and claiming to be a translation from the Italian. "Found manuscript" genre.

2

Story of O

by Pauline Réage

3,694 members

83 reviews

½ 3.3

Member: bluepiano
Explanations: bluepiano: This woman knew how to keep a secret. (Cf Ingeborg Day.)

3

The History of the Kings of Britain

by Geoffrey of Monmouth

2,739 members

21 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: 11th century Latin chronicle supposedly based on ancient British sources. Highly influential into the 16th century, but now considered to be more fabulation than history.

4

Either/Or: A Fragment of Life

by Søren Kierkegaard

1,986 members

16 reviews

3.9

Member: bluepiano
Explanations: bluepiano: Et al. This one written by Victor Eremita. Cf Pessoa.

5

Persian Letters

by Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu

1,789 members

18 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: spiphany

6

His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae

by Graeme Macrae Burnet

1,645 members

85 reviews

3.9

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Written in the style of a "true crime" novel but made up of fictional historical documents. Not intended to deceive.

7

My Life as a Fake

by Peter Carey

1,507 members

36 reviews

½ 3.3

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Novel about a literary hoax that takes on a life of its own. Inspired by the Ern Malley affair.

8

The Life before Us

by Romain Gary

1,488 members

40 reviews

4.1

Member: bluepiano
Explanations: bluepiano: Emile Ajar won his second Prix Goncourt for this.

9

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

by B. Traven

1,006 members

21 reviews

4.1

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: The real identity of the German-language writer behind the pseudonym still remains a matter of much debate and speculation.

10

Ali and Nino

by Kurban Said

973 members

49 reviews

3.8

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Author behind the pseudonym is still disputed; possibly Essad Bey/Lev Nussimbaum

11

Chatterton

by Peter Ackroyd

888 members

15 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Novel about Thomas Chatterton (see this list) and an exploration of fiction and authenticity more generally.

12

Codex Seraphinianus

by Luigi Serafini

816 members

30 reviews

½ 4.6

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: An illustrated encyclopedia written in a nonsense script (i.e., a non-text pretending to be a text). A literary/artistic experiment, not a hoax, though drawing inspiration from the undeciphered Voynich manuscript (which has been suspected of being a forgery).

13

James Tiptree Jr: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon

by Julie Phillips

752 members

33 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: spiphany

14

The Diaries of Jane Somers

by Doris Lessing

554 members

13 reviews

3.9

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Published by Lessing under a pseudonym to make a point about how the acceptance of manuscripts and reception of publications is influenced by how famous the author is.

15

Death in Brittany

by Jean-Luc Bannalec

537 members

28 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: The pseudonym was originally given a fictional biography as a French-German writer from Brest, but later revealed to be German publisher Jörg Bong.

16

Knickerbocker's History of New York

by Washington Irving

451 members

2 reviews

3.2

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: As a publicity stunt prior to publication of the book, Irving spread false reports about the disappearance of the purported author of the book, Dutch historian Mr. Knickerbocker

17

The Ingredients of Love

by Nicolas Barreau

345 members

20 reviews

3.2

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: The Frenchman Nicolas Barreau (along with the German translator Sophie Scherrer) may in fact be German author Daniele Thiele.

18

The Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun

by Mariana Alcoforado

290 members

3 reviews

½ 3.3

Member: spiphany

19

The Songs of Bilitis

by Pierre Louÿs

289 members

4 reviews

3.8

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Poems in the manner of Sappho, presented as translations from the ancient Greek.

20

Fernando Pessoa & Co.: Selected Poems

by Fernando Pessoa

270 members

4 reviews

4.2

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Pessoa is famous for his use of various personas or "heteronyms". No intent to deceive in this case.

21

The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau

by Graeme Macrae Burnet

252 members

15 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Purports to be a translation from the French

22

The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi

by Sir Richard Francis Burton

179 members

½ 3.7

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Pseudotranslation by Arabist Richard Burton, purportedly of of a Persian poem by Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî

23

The City of Light

by Jacob d'Ancona

172 members

5 reviews

3.1

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: The existence of the manuscript upon which Selbourne's translation is based has never been established, and seems likely to be a fiction.

24

The poems of Ossian

by James Macpherson

153 members

9 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Claimed to be translations of ancient Celtic epic poetry, but in fact largely MacPherson's own creation

25

Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms

by Carmela Ciuraru

149 members

6 reviews

3.8

Member: spiphany

26

Nat Tate: An American Artist: 1928-1960

by William Boyd

145 members

33 reviews

3.1

Member: spiphany

27

The Facts of Winter

by Paul Poissel

137 members

4 reviews

3.8

Member: bluepiano
Explanations: bluepiano: Pseudonym + convincing cod non-fiction

28

Panter, Tiger & Co.: Eine neue Auswahl aus seinen Schriften und Gedichten

by Kurt Tucholsky

132 members

1 review

½ 4.3

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Like many satirists, Tucholsky mostly published his writing under a variety of aliases, each of whom had their own distinct persona

29

Sarah Binks

by Paul G. Hiebert

124 members

4 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Biography of a poet who never existed

30

The Nightwatches of Bonaventura

by August Klingemann

116 members

2 reviews

4

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: The author behind "Bonaventura" was debated into the 1980s. Now generally accepted as being August Klingemann.

31

Geoffrey Hill's New and Collected Poems: 1952-1992

by Geoffrey Hill

113 members

½ 4.3

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Includes the "Songbook Of Sebastian Arrurruz", pseudotranslations of a fictitious Spanish poet.

32

A Hero's Daughter

by Andreï Makine

111 members

2 reviews

½ 3.4

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Russian-born Makine originally had to pretend that his French manuscripts were translations because publishers refused to believe he had written them in French. Makine also later published several novels under the pseudonym Gabriel Osmonde, whose identity was only discovered in 2011.

33

The Ern Malley Affair

by Michael Heyward

105 members

2 reviews

4

Member: bluepiano
Explanations: bluepiano: Companion volume to the collection of his poetry.

34

Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in Western Scholarship

by Anthony Grafton

103 members

½ 4.4

Member: spiphany

35

The Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion

by Magdalen King-Hall

103 members

3 reviews

½ 3.4

Member: spiphany

36

Telling Tales: A History of Literary Hoaxes

by Melissa Katsoulis

98 members

6 reviews

½ 3.4

Member: spiphany

37

An Incomplete History of the Art of Funerary Violin

by Rohan Kriwaczek

93 members

1 review

3.1

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Presented as a work of musical history about a genre that never existed. According to the author the fiction was not intended as a hoax.

38

Biografi

by Lloyd Jones

88 members

3 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Attracted criticism for the way it blends factual travelogue and fiction

39

Yankee Lawyer: The Autobiography of Ephraim Tutt

by Ephraim Tutt

78 members

5

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Arthur Train, a lawyer, published numerous stories about legal cases by the fictional Ephraim Tutt; the publication of Tutt's "autobiography" caused much confusion about whether Tutt was in fact fictional.

40

Marbot: A Biography

by Wolfgang Hildesheimer

77 members

1 review

½ 3.6

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Biography of a fictional nineteenth-century British nobleman and art critic

41

Their Brilliant Careers: The Fantastic Lives of Sixteen Extraordinary Australian Writers

by Ryan O'Neill

52 members

3 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: spiphany

42

I, Libertine

by Theodore Sturgeon

52 members

2 reviews

½ 3.4

Member: spiphany

43

La vie sexuelle d'Emmanuel Kant

by Jean-Baptiste Botul

48 members

1 review

3

Member: spiphany

44

Papa Hamlet / Ein Tod.

by Arno Holz

46 members

½ 3.3

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Book by two German authors, originally published under the pseudonym Bjarne P. Holmsen as a translation from the Norwegian

45

Crimes of Writing: Problems in the Containment of Representation

by Susan Stewart

45 members

½ 4.5

Member: spiphany

46

The Letters of Wanda Tinasky

by Wanda Tinasky

38 members

1 review

½ 3.3

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Persona used for a number of reader letters sent to two California newspapers in the 1980s. Real identity was likely the poet Tom Hawkins.

47

On the Choice of a Mistress & Other Satires & Hoaxes

by Benjamin Franklin

37 members

3.8

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Franklin had a number of pseudonymous personas which he used when publishing satirical commentary.

48

Practice to Deceive: The Incredible Story of Literary Forgery's Most Notorious Practitioners

by Joseph Rosenblum

34 members

4

Member: spiphany

49

The history of a hoax : Edmund Lester Pearson, John Cotton Dana, and The old librarian's almanack

by Wayne A. Wiegand

33 members

2 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: spiphany

50

Faking Literature

by K. K. Ruthven

30 members

3.8

Member: spiphany

51

Collected Poems

by Michael Donaghy

27 members

1 review

4

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Includes "Seven Poems from the Welsh" attributed to the fictional poet Sion ap Brydydd.

52

Shiki Nagaoka: A Nose for Fiction

by Mario Bellatin

27 members

1 review

½ 3.6

Member: spiphany

53

The Rowley Poems

by Thomas Chatterton

26 members

1 review

Member: spiphany

54

The Balloon Hoax

by Edgar Allan Poe

23 members

3

Member: spiphany

55

The Sin Eater and The Washer of the Ford and Other Legendary Mortalities

by Fiona Macleod

21 members

½ 4.3

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: William Sharp went so far as to enlist his sister to assist him in maintaining the ruse of Fiona MacLeod being a real person.

56

Ern Malley - Collected Poems (Imprint poetry)

by Ern Malley

19 members

1 review

3

Member: spiphany

57

Katerina Brac

by Christopher Reid

17 members

2.8

Member: spiphany

58

Los poemas de Sidney West

by Juan Gelman

16 members

½ 3.5

Member: spiphany

59

Ananios of Kleitor

by George Economou

14 members

1 review

½ 4.3

Member: bluepiano
Explanations: bluepiano: I've read more than one review treating this as a work of non-fiction.

60

Deliquescences of Adoré Floupette

by Henri Beauclair

14 members

1 review

3.8

Member: spiphany

61

A Digit of the Moon

by F. W. Bain

13 members

5

Member: bluepiano
Explanations: bluepiano: Not a story from Sanskrit despite some critics of the time believing it was.

62

The Oera Linda Book

by J.G. Ottema

13 members

1 review

4

Member: spiphany

63

Arioflotga

by Frank Kuppner

11 members

3.2

Member: bluepiano
Explanations: bluepiano: a poetic index, a false history of its MS

64

Impostors: Literary Hoaxes and Cultural Authenticity

by Christopher L. Miller

10 members

5

Member: spiphany

65

Spectra : a book of poetic experiments

by Emanuel Morgan

10 members

4

Member: spiphany

66

Jilted city

by Patrick McGuinness

8 members

½ 4.5

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Includes a number of ostensible translations of the Romanian poet Liviu Campanu, alongside original poems and translations of actually existing poets.

67

The Algerine Spy in Pennsylvania

by Peter Markoe

8 members

1 review

4

Member: spiphany

68

Das Kleine Lexikon der Provinzliteratur

by Pedro Lenz

8 members

4

Member: spiphany

69

The love poems of Marichiko

by Marichiko

7 members

5

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Pseudotranslation by American poet and translator Kenneth Rexroth pretending to be a young Japanese woman.

70

The Wisdom of Uncle Kasimir

by Gabi Czerniak

7 members

½ 3.5

Member: bluepiano
Explanations: bluepiano: I've seen this too reviewed as non-fiction.

71

Walladmor

by Willibald Alexis

6 members

½ 3.5

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: The young author presented his novel as a German translation of a book by his idol, Walter Scott.

72

The voyages of the Venetian brothers, Nicolò & Antonio Zeno, to the northern seas, in the XIVth century, comprising the

by Richard Henry Major

6 members

3

Member: spiphany

73

Trojan War: The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian

by R. M. Frazer

6 members

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Two two frauds or fictions from antiquity, both purportedly written by survivors of the Trojan War.

74

Land of the Snow Men

by George Belden

6 members

Member: bluepiano
Explanations: bluepiano: pseudonym + convincing cod non-fiction--good review here: http://cafeirreal.alicewhittenburg.com/review6.htm

75

Echo's Grove

by Derek Mahon

6 members

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Collection of translations and adaptations of various poets, including poems by the fictional Indian poet Gopal Singh.

76

Vortigern, an historical tragedy in five acts represented at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and Henry the Second.

by William Henry Ireland

6 members

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: "Lost Shakespeare" manuscripts forged by Ireland in the 18th century

77

The pleasant and surprizing adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his fifteen years captivity on the island of ...

by Daniel Defoe

6 members

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: 18th century account by a shipwrecked sailor in Madagascar, later believed to be a fiction (possibly by Defoe), but may in fact be genuine.

78

The Bowmen

by Arthur Machen

5 members

Member: bluepiano
Explanations: bluepiano: In a way, the inverse of the others: the story was straightforwardly fiction but the public turned it into a hoax after the fact.

79

Saracen Island: The Poems of Andreas Karavis

by David Solway

5 members

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Supported by various people who were aware of or had recognized the pretense but spontaneously decided to play along, including a dentist who posed as Karavis for the press. The author has published several additional pseudotranslations by other personas.

80

The Elegies of Quintilius

by Peter Russell

5 members

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: The Roman poet "Quintilius" is an invention of Russell

81

Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway song: with historical and traditional notices relative to the manners and customs of the peasantry

by Robert Hartley Cromek

4 members

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Collection of "old Scottish ballads" which were mostly original creations of a contemporary poet, Allan Cunningham. Cromek may or may not have been aware of the poems' real origins.

82

The Poems of Renata Ferreira (Portuguese in the Americas Series)

by Frank X. Gaspar

4 members

Member: spiphany

83

Сочинения Козьмы Пруткова

by Kozma Prutkov

4 members

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Collective pseudonym invented by four 19th-century Russian satirical poets

84

Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity.

by Alan Sokal

3 members

4

Member: bluepiano
Explanations: bluepiano: Why didn't this occur to me straight away? Notorious hoax.

85

The epistles of Phalaris Translated from the Greek. To which are added, some select epistles of the most eminent Greek writers. By Thomas Francklin, M. A. Fellow of Trinity-College, Cambridge

by Pseudo-Phalaris

3 members

½ 2.5

Member: spiphany

86

Aléas Ich

by Aléa Torik

3 members

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: The discovery that the biography of "Aléa Torik" was a fiction caused a stir in the German blogosphere and media (the name might have been a clue...)

87

Der Sturm

by Per Johansson

3 members

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: A "Swedish" crime novel written by two German authors with the help of a fictional translator

88

Feodor Vladimir Larrovitch; an appreciation of his life and work

by William George Jordan

2 members

Member: spiphany

89

Winter in Tirane: The Stories of Jiri Kajane (Volume 1)

by Jiri Kajane

2 members

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Not an "Albanian writer" at all, it turns out.

90

EXAMEN DE LA OBRA DE HERBERT QUAIN

by Jorge Luis Borges

1 member

1

Member: spiphany

91

La Guzla [i.e. Prosper Mérimée], ou, Choix de poésies illyriques : recueilles dans la Dalmatie, la Bosnie, la Croatie et l'Herzegowine

by Prosper Mérimée

1 member

Member: spiphany

92

La chasse spirituelle d'Arthur Rimbaud les illuminations

by Daniel Verstraete

1 member

Member: spiphany

93

Georges Zuk: Selected Verse

by Georges Zuk

1 member

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: British-Canadian author Robin Skelton writing as a French surrealist poet.

94

An den Mauern des Paradieses

by Martin Schneitewind

1 member

Member: spiphany
Explanations: spiphany: Speculations abound as to whether Schneitewind ever existed or is an invention of the manuscript's "discoverers", Köhlmeier and Schrott (the latter seems most likely).

95