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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'When Dionysus the Renegade faked a Sophocles text in 400 BC to humiliate an academic rival, he paved the way for two millennia of increasingly outlandish literary hoaxers. The path from his mischievous stunt to more serious tricksters like the controversial memoirist and Oprah-duper James Frey, takes in every sort of writer: from the religious zealot to the bored student, via the vengeful academic and the out-and-out joker. For the first time, the complete history of this fascinating sub-genre of world literature is revealed.
But whether hoaxing for fame, money, politics or simple amusement, each perpetrator represents something unique about why we write. Their stories speak volumes about how reading, writing and publishing have grown out of the fine and private places of the past into big-business, TV-book-club-led mass-marketplaces which, some would say, are ripe for the ripping.' (Publisher's blurb)
Notes
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Includes comment on Australian literary hoaxes.
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Dedication: For Rosalind Adams: mother, friend, investor.
Contents
- Australia, single work criticism (p. 123-164)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Identity Check
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , April vol. 5 no. 3 2010; (p. 8-9)
— Review of Telling Tales : A History of Literary Hoaxes 2009 single work criticism ; Hoax Nation : Australian Fakes and Frauds from Plato to Norma Khouri 2009 single work criticism ; The Celebrated George Barrington : A Spurious Author, the Book Trade, and Botany Bay 2008 single work criticism ; A Swindler's Progress : Nobles and Convicts in the Age of Liberty 2009 single work biography -
Up to Their Old Tricks
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 6-7 February 2010; (p. 32)
— Review of Hoax Nation : Australian Fakes and Frauds from Plato to Norma Khouri 2009 single work criticism ; Telling Tales : A History of Literary Hoaxes 2009 single work criticism -
Untitled
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 29 January no. 5574 2010; (p. 27)
— Review of Telling Tales : A History of Literary Hoaxes 2009 single work criticism -
Non-Fiction Books
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 23 - 24 January 2010; (p. 24)
— Review of Telling Tales : A History of Literary Hoaxes 2009 single work criticism -
Briefing Books
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 9-10 January 2010; (p. 16-17)
— Review of They Called Him Old Smoothie : John Joseph Cahill : A Belated Biography of a Rather Exceptional Politician 2009 single work biography ; Telling Tales : A History of Literary Hoaxes 2009 single work criticism
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Playing Us for Suckers
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 1-2 January 2010; (p. 16)
— Review of Hoax Nation : Australian Fakes and Frauds from Plato to Norma Khouri 2009 single work criticism ; Telling Tales : A History of Literary Hoaxes 2009 single work criticism -
Briefing Books
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 9-10 January 2010; (p. 16-17)
— Review of They Called Him Old Smoothie : John Joseph Cahill : A Belated Biography of a Rather Exceptional Politician 2009 single work biography ; Telling Tales : A History of Literary Hoaxes 2009 single work criticism -
Non-Fiction Books
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 23 - 24 January 2010; (p. 24)
— Review of Telling Tales : A History of Literary Hoaxes 2009 single work criticism -
Untitled
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 29 January no. 5574 2010; (p. 27)
— Review of Telling Tales : A History of Literary Hoaxes 2009 single work criticism -
Up to Their Old Tricks
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 6-7 February 2010; (p. 32)
— Review of Hoax Nation : Australian Fakes and Frauds from Plato to Norma Khouri 2009 single work criticism ; Telling Tales : A History of Literary Hoaxes 2009 single work criticism