1 comments about True or False? Amazing Art Forgeries.

1. This is an older book, but a good one! If you are interesting in the history of famous art fakes, this book covers everything from statues of antiquities faked by Michaelangelo (of all people), the famous forger David Stein (who did time in Sing-Sing .)
   
   The methods of the forgers (from Michaelangelo burying a statue of Cupid to give it a patina) to how science detects the fakes (pigments, canvas, paper) is all covered. This is a very fascinating read about art history and criminal history combined. The author is a journalist who really gets the facts and writes excitingly as well. A classic.

5 comments about American Goliath: Inspired by the True, Incredible Events.

1. The royal monster mavens, Mary Shelley, who created Frankenstein's monster, and Rabbi Judah Low ben Bezulel, who popularized the Golem (a monster out of Jewish mythology) now have a crown prince to share their throne room - Harvey Jacobs, author of the wholly absorbing, outrageously funny novel, "American Goliath."

   What a farce this is to get lost in! It is based on a true event: the faked discovery in 1869 of a 10-foot stone statue of a man buried on a farm near Cardiff, NY. The entire hoax - from sculpting the statue through burying and uncovering it - was cleverly staged. The statue was claimed by its fake discoverers to be the petrified remains of a giant who lived when giants walked the earth, particularly on the land that became the United States.

   The Cardiff Giant, often called Goliath, became renowned all over an America desperate for diversion from the agonized memories of the recent Civil War. The giant was viewed by thousands of paying Ameicans for reasons that varied from simple curiosity to anticipation of a religious experience. Goliath is still with us, big as ever in his permanent home in the Farmer's Museum, Cooperstown, NY.

   The flimflam artists who conceived Goliath and established him in American history found their modern mythologizer in Harvey Jacobs. In "American Goliath," as in his dazzling previous novel, "Beautiful Soup," Jacobs reveals superb writing qualifications for telling the story of the Cardiff Giant and for contributing inspiring flimflam of his own.

   Each of the monsters of literature has his own personality. Frankenstein's monster, for instance, is both violent and pathetic. The Golem exhibits terrifying power. Like these predecessors, the Cardiff Giant has strength but is distinguished from them by sexual power and sexual inquisitiveness. A sexy fossil? Isn't that too far out? Not at all because Jacobs' comic inventiveness depends greatly on his his demonstrated talent for making the far out seem plausible.

   Here is an example. Terms like mass medium, mass hysteria, mass production, mass market, mass murder, and even Mass card are widespread with nothing inherently funny in any of them. In fact, the word "mass" has a lethargic quality. Against this common linguistic experience, Jacobs suddenly confronts us with his own mass phenomenon, which occurs, without warning, in a crowd gathered around Goliath. "Mass tumescence!" Don't ask. You will find it described on page 168, where you will also discover that you can relieve this condition by "communal prayer and the singing of familiar hymns."

   Philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, politician Boss Tweed, actor Edwin Booth, financier Cornelius Vanderbilt, and justice Oliver Wendell Holmes are a few of the potpourri of fascinating peronalities from real life that help move the story from one imaginative and funny episode to the next. Great showman P.T. Barnum unsuccessfully tries to buy Goliath. Frustrated but persistent, Barnum hires a sculptor to make a copy of Goliath. Then, assisted by his celebrated protege, Tom Thumb, Barnum exhibits his stone clone with the brash claim that it is the only authentic ancient man.

   Make no mistake: the two colossi are not just lifeless shapes of stone. They can think! Surely their thoughts will find their way into future studies of literary stream of consciousness techniques.

   Sometimes the giants' thoughts indicate that they have rocks in their heads. Fair enough. But when Goliath asks "Is there more to me than I know?" it is clear that a stone mind is capable of profundity. Here and throughout the novel, Jacobs ignores the orthodox boundary betweeen reality and fantasy. The result is a delightful and engrossing madness that makes "American Goliath" a brilliant tour de comic force. And, best of all, Jacobs is a talented storyteller, making his novel a pleasure to discover.




2. The absolutely true story of the greatest hoax of the 19th century is given a charming retelling here. Problem: the author smirks early and often at his characters and at the credulous America that yearns to be fooled into believing in something. None of the characters is all that deeply drawn; each one bumbles through the story as best he can but without moving the reader all that much. Angelica's widowed plight, Loretta's promiscuity, George Hull's burning ambition to avoid disappointing his father, Herbert Black Paw's rage at the white God: these characters don't explore extremes of high or low, all are figures of fun to be pointed at. Yet the book never quite rollicks either. There are a few lurid incidents: frenzied sexual encounters with the celebrated midget General Tom Thumb; fatal elephant mishaps; and my favorite loon in a book full of loons is Salle, the mad sculptor kept in a cage by his former student. But these twists are neither inevitable enough to elicit the nod of recognition nor unexpected enough to drop jaws. It is as if the author were writing for an audience of stone giants who smile and shrug at puny mortals and their fleeting concerns. That said, the book is by far the most readable and funny and fast-moving of all the books in the "Ragtime"/"Banished Children of Eve" canon of sprawling Americana. Certainly worth a read.



3. Based on an all-American hoax, it tells an all-American story of suckers and entrepreneurs and proves that, here at least, one of each is born every minute. But beyond the hilarity--somewhere between the fictional spin on the factual fun-- Mr. Jacobs is making a point about what made America "great" and lo! it's that tension between suckers and entrepreneurs. And all of this is wrapped in a delicious, rollicking prose that makes you look up from your reading and say,"Honey, listen to THIS..." In other words, I'm giving it three thumbs up.



4. Sly, randy, and splendidly researched, Harvey Jacob's novel is one for the ages.I did not expect this story to be told with so much humor or such understated insight into what our country - and many of its denizens - was like circa 1869. Marvelous descriptions, amusingly deft characterizations, some startlingly intuitive depths where one would least expect them to appear. This novel does not at all suffer to compare with the magnificent RAGTIME. I was most amused and impressed by the fast, witty dialogue, particularly between Barnum and Tom Thumb - what used to be called "crackling good" dialogue during the old screwball comedy days. Other scenes reminded me of the logical nonsense of CATCH 22. In other words:a hoot and a real pleasure to read - made me want to start it all over again once I finished. Harvey Jacob's marvelous imagination and talent has provided us with a celebration of American craziness and craftiness. Very funny and something else. So read it, already!



5. Is this giant too big for America to see ? I first read about it in an English magazine in a piece I think by Michael Moorcock or Martin Amis, who claimed Jacobs as one of America's funniest writers. Well it took the Brits to see Chandler, Faulkner, Welty and a dozen others before we did, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. A prophet in his own land indeed! This is a superb, mordant, intelligent, clever and wonderfully funny novel which should be on every literary studies syllabus in America. I can't add much to the other reviewers -- except to join in the applause. Jacobs is a first rate writer. This is the first book I have read of his and I'm desperate for more. A great American novel, nothing less.

2 comments about Great Forgers and Famous Fakes: The Manuscript Forgers of America and How They Duped the Experts.

1. This book reads like an autobiography of every famous forger. I found this book very insightful and helpfull, the way Hamilton deduces the forgers finest forgerys is incredible!! There are examples of almost every famous forger. Hamilton is an absolute master at the art of autographs, he share is this book his secrets for uncovering forgers and their tricks. If you are a collecor and think you might have an original Lincoln,Washington or even a Franklin you might want to check again!!!



2. I've always been interested in old documents and autographs, real or faked, so I probably would have gotten around to reading Charles Hamilton's book anyway. I'm surprised that I missed it back in 1980 when it first was published. However, I made a point of getting a copy last week because this work was mentioned in another book about literary forgery I was reading. That one, "The Poet and the Murderer" by Simon Worrall, is also worth reading. In his chapter on the history of forgery, Worrall mentions Hamilton's book and one of the many forgers described in it, Thomas McNamara, a New England poet and college teacher who was nabbed in 1977 for selling fake Robert Frost manuscripts. Well, I got a bad feeling in my stomach when I read that brief reference. Back in 1962-63, my college freshman English teacher was Thomas Edward Francis McNamara, who was brilliant in the classroom, and became my friend outside of it until he was let go by Rider College (now University) in New Jersey. MY Tom McNamara was a poet with a special interest in Robert Frost. He went back to New England in 1964 and I lost track of him, but I always wondered what became of him. I had to get the Hamilton book to find out if the felonious McNamara was my long-lost friend. Sadly, he is, or was, and is covered in Chapter 14 of Hamilton's book. His own poetry was published under his first three names, and I have a vanity press volume from 1961 he inscribed to me. According to Hamilton, my friend Tom was a fraud, who claimed a phony master's degree from Wayne State University to get college jobs, and who was indeed popular with students but seldom kept a job for long. He ended up entering a guilty plea in federal court in 1978 and was sentenced to a year in the federal pen, (which sounds like a pun when describing a forger.) How sad. I wonder what became of him after? I would like to know if he was an undiagnosed bi-polar or schizophrenic, or just plain evil? He made Frost and other American poets come alive for me. Why wasn't he content just to be a good instructor? Hamilton's book does not answer any of these questions, since the McNamara case was fresh when it was published. The rest of the book details forgers going back nearly two centuries. While Hamilton is not the most skilled writer, he obviously knows his autographs, and the book is full of tips on how to spot faked Lincoln, Washington, Ben Franklin and other letters. It is fascinating that forgery has such a long history and that there have been so many brilliant practitioners. The discouraging aspect is that it makes the hobby of collecting autographs and letters a risky one, indeed. Clearly, there are more fake items on the market than real ones, for the more famous historical figures. I have a modest collection myself, mostly obtained by my sister in the '50's and myself in the '60's and 70's, of actors, race car drivers, and baseball players. I can vouch for all but the ballplayers, which I purchased from strangers via the mail. If there was a person of Charles Hamilton's talents in my area, I'd pay him to take a look at the signatures for which I can't vouch personally. I hope my Ted Williams, for instance, is the real thing, but I'll bet there are fakes out there now. Since mine was purchased 40 years ago, I think it is likely authentic. Hamilton's book, however, will definitely make a skeptic out of the casual collector. For that reason alone, it is a book worth owning.

1 comments about Reborn Overseas : Identity Building in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

1. Written by Trent Sands, this books can at best serve as a primer for establishing identity in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. It falls far short of being useful for the actual acts which it portrays to be designed. It does give some overview information on the process, and that alone is useful. However, the real identity seaker is going to find many blocks to using the methods presecribed. Use it as a starter, not as a guide.

No comments about The Poet and the Murderer.

No comments about Cultures of Forgery: Making Nations, Making Selves (Culturework: a Bookseries from the Center for Literacy and Cultural Studies at Harvard).

5 comments about The Poet and the Murderer: A True Story of Literary Crime and the Art of Forgery.

1. Simon Worral is clearly an accomplished writer and his book, The Poet and the Murderer, demonstrates that skill. It's a fascinating story about a forger who earns a good living faking historical documents, mainly those that could be important to the Mormon Church. The reader learns a great deal about how document forgery is accomplished, about how little concern the nation's major auction houses demonstrate for the validity of what they put on the block, and about the roots of Mormonism.
   
   The only problem with the book is that the story wanders around in interesting but not necessarily riveting detail --- detail that sometimes loses sight of the story line. What was auctioned off as a poem of Emily Dickinson frames the story in an opening that zeros in on the purchaser, Daniel Lombardo, then the curator of special collections for the Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts, the center of Dickinson lore.
   
   The character who turns out to be a forger and murderer, Mark Hoffman, fails to come alive in the sense one can identify with him, or pity him or even be truly appalled by him. Raised a Mormon and obsessed by the church, he is portrayed as mechanical man. If his crime had been foreshadowed in greater detail, with a more sympathetic portrayal of the victims, I think the story would have held more of my attention.
   
   But it is wrong to be too critical of Worral's work, which is an easy read. I just wanted more. That is not a bad way to leave a reader, but it does seem that more might have been available to Worral, more of what I wanted to know about Lombardo as well as Hoffman's victims. Finally I'd like to have footnotes on Worral's detailed analysis of the early years of Mormonism, or at least some citations of his secondary sources, so I could easily follow up where my interest was stimulated by this book.



2. This one starts out a bit slow and then speeds up with great exposition about technique, method, motive - leading to grisly murders and a bizarre central character. Dry wit style takes you into the backsludge of a flimsy industry full of fakes. A great read. It is about way more than Mormons or the literal crimes. And I think Aunt Emily is a vastly, grossly overestimated , third rate poet. From Mass, she gets itellectual praise. If she were from Nashville, people would just laugh. But the story is about human nature and greed on the base level, right in polite society. Great writing, page turner, one night read. Would be a great airplane book. Five stars in spite of the slow, polite start and the attempt to make Aunt Emily appear a worthy poet. Got it from library, read it and bought two for gifts from Amazon vendors. Not for the kids.



3. This book goes beyond the usual anti-Mormon quasi-historical documentary/docudrama. As Mormon history is often documented despite unsure, poorly substantiated, and conflicting facts, this book is convincing based on the writer's sharp research and study of sciences such as forgery, art dealing, and the New England rural lifestyle. I could barely put it down.



4. I found it be a terrific book, well written, flowing, and plenty of information about forgeries and past histories. If nothing else, I discovered plenty of information on Emily, her family, and the area and climate around her home. There's always been plenty of information about Mormonism, and it's to the individual ot make up his/her mind about the religious aspects. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to others.



5. Having read most of the other books dealing with the Mark Hoffman affair, I was interested in this interesting approach. Indeed, there is much to be admired in this account. Although I am a faithful adherent of the LDS faith, I am willing to accept alternate interpretations of LDS church history.
   
   Unfortunately, Worrell make too many statements about the LDS church, LDS history, and LDS temple worship which are demonstrably false, including details of a sensitive nature I'd prefer not to go into, but which careful research would have clarified. It seems he either simply skimmed material or read a schetchy account, and then with a somewhat hazy view in his mind simply made up the details in an attempt to clarify the issue.
   
   Given these lapses, I can't help but question details in his discussion of Dickenson, Sotheby's, the Amherst community, etc.
   
   This is unfortunate, really, as the topic of Hoffman's non-LDS materials needs further discussion; unfortuantely, I doubt the quality of work done in this book as evidenced by the mishandling of the LDS materials. A much better approach for that aspect may be found in Robert Lindsey's "A Gathering of Saints."

No comments about The Great Shakespeare Fraud: The Strange, True Story of William-Henry Ireland.

4 comments about Your Evil Twin: Behind the Identity Theft Epidemic.

1. Ignorance is not bliss - it only gives more time for identity thieves to ruin your life. I already own a shredder, to indulge my paranoia of having credit card applications and other personal information easily available to those with sinister intentions. This book confirms the need for the paranoia, but also points out how little control I have over "keeping" my own identity. This is a page-turner, flavored with stories of real people who have experienced identity theft, making it a very interesting read. This issue is huge, much more than someone trying to run up some charges on a credit card I have in my wallet. And what I found particularly shocking was how unwilling different institutions are to come up with solutions.



2. This book is all about a problem that simply didn't exist only a few years ago. Now it's become the fastest growing white collar crime in America. It strikes in every community from the smallest to the largest. The crime is profitable, nearly unpreventable, and hardly ever prosecuted (by one estimate only one out of every 700 incidents). It's the down side of the information super highway. Getting a bit of information about a person is easy, and then you can get a bit more. Soon you can buy a car in his name, get credit cards in his name, like the TV commercial, you're on the beach, your credit cards are in the airplane flying by.
   
   The book says, rightfully I believe, that you are basically on your own. The police don't seem to care, the credit card companies write off the loss and go on about their business. Just don't you try to ever use your credit again.
   
   The author is a leading expert on the subject, as well as being a senior writer at MSNBC. He knows how to write and he knows his subject, what more can you ask.



3. To begin with, I was terribly distracted by all the typographical/spelling and editing errors that ran rampant in this book. Why would anyone put a book out for sale that hasn't been proofread?
   
   But most of all, this book covers an extremely important subject, one of potential interest to just about everyone, and yet it was so shallow. I have been better informed about identity theft, what it is, what is being done about it, and what we can do if we are targeted as victims in local newspapers and in magazine articles. There was no discussion of many very common methods of identity theft, including observation of victims as they enter their ATM or telephone pin numbers and codes, inadvertantly leaving passwords and usernames on public computers, giving credit card numbers to untrustworthy websites, using credit cards in untrustworthy restaurants and stores, writing passwords in places others can easily access, being victimized by phishing schemes, etc. Each of these and many more are methods of identity theft easily avoided yet this book doesn't mention them.
   
   Even the anecdotes left me hanging for more detail, more of what happened and why. Instead, they rambled on disconnectedly and often had no beginnings nor conclusions. The organization of the book was sub-par, which accounted for much unnecessary repetition of minor details. This book simply screams for a better editor.



4. Much has been written about identity theft, and what people have to go through to clear their credit reports. But what I had never given much thought to is that identity theft goes much beyond stealing identities for financial gain. In fact, what is much more difficult to deal with is when your identity is stolen and used by criminals in general. Try to clear a supposed criminal record. And if you are in the United States, try to do that if you are black or Hispanic. That is just part of the excellent discussions you will find in Bob Sullivan's Your Evil Twin: Behind the Identity Theft Epidemic (August 2004, John Wiley & Sons, 314 Pages, ISBN 0471648108).
   
   A journalist by training, Sullivan presents an easy to read, if unsettling, narrative talking about different aspects of identity theft that do not often get discussed. Some of the material is material found in magazines and other journals, but the strength of this book is that it beings many different pieces into one place. Sullivan starts out by showing that no one is immune to identity theft, whether it be a CEO or even Eldrick "Tiger" Woods. He goes into some detail explaining who was taken advantage of and how, though he does not offer solutions for the problems.
   
   But this does not mean he is afraid to take on the real villains in identity theft, the credit card companies and retailers who push easy credit every chance they get. Sullivan makes the excellent point that the availability of easy credit is actually better for the bad guys than those who do the right thing. He also does not shy away from calling out the credit reporting agencies and their role in this problem. Why should they be charging people for "Credit report watches", when they helped create the problem? It was fascinating from a historical perspective to read how the three major credit reporting companies came to be. It is a heck of a trivia question to ask how a railroad fits into the scheme of things.
   
   You will, or at least should, find yourself challenged by the reality that the race factor plays in how victims are treated. Like it or not, we live in two Americas as clearly shown in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Discussions of this topic in the book really offer a time for reflection and thought in the area of identity theft.
   
   One should not expect this book to answer every possible question about identity theft, but should be considered as part of a larger library on data privacy and identity theft. It provides a human perspective that other titles on the subject often lack.
   
   Who Should Read This Book?
   
   This book, while not a "must read" would be of interest to people who want to explore more of the human side of identity theft and would like some additional historical/political perspective.
   
   The Scorecard
   
   Birdie on an average Par 4

No comments about Stealing the Scream: The Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece.