At this writing, it’s early July 2020, and I’m in Lafayette, New York, walking distance from where the Cardiff Giant was “discovered” in October 1869.
The story goes that after an argument, George Hull, a wealthy tobacconist, decided to create a 10-foot-tall, petrified giant. The disagreement took place at a Methodist revival meeting and centered around Genesis 6:4, which states giants once roamed the earth. Hull hired a quarry to cut some gypsum under the false pretense it was intended for a monument to President Abraham Lincoln. He then had the block shipped to Chicago, where he paid Edward Burghardt, a German stonecutter, to carve a man’s likeness and kept it secret. Using various stains and acids, the stone giant was made to look weathered and old. Then with his cousin’s (William Newell) help, Hull transported the giant by railroad to upstate New York and buried it on Newell’s farm. There, it would lay undiscovered until Newell hired two hands to dig a well a year later.
This story gained national attention once the “news” hit the papers and people traveled from miles around to have a glimpse of the rock giant. The notable showman, P.T. Barnum, offered $50,000 (2020 value nearly one million) for the giant, but Hull declined. So, Barnum had his own “Cardiff Giant” built and displayed it at fairs.
Leading archeologists of the day called it a hoax after viewing the giant. Two months later, in early December, Hull admitted to the entire scheme. It became one of the most famous hoaxes in American history.
Today you can view the Cardiff Giant at the Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown, New York.
After reading Scott Tribble’s book, A Colossal Hoax: The Giant from Cardiff that Fooled America, I began to wonder, what was the greatest literary hoax of all time? A quick internet search provided nineteen literary hoaxes. Here are three that fall into the “what were they thinking?” category.
Topping the list is James Frey’s autobiography A Million Little Pieces. Turns out he exaggerated a stint in prison and fictionalized having a root canal done without anesthesia. Oprah hand-picked his book for her book club, and later had him appear as a guest on her show. He continued with his ruse until he was called out by the Smoking Gun website. Frey admitted he embellished his story and apologized to Oprah.
The Autobiography of Howard Hughes by Clifford Irving was dubbed “The most famous unpublished book of the 20th century.” Irving claimed to be interviewing the eccentric and reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes. He was even able to fool a publisher into accepting the project. Later, prior to going to print, Hughes said he had no idea who Irving was. Regardless, the book did come out in 2012, and Irving said, “I had never realized I was committing a crime. I had thought of it as a hoax.”
Of all the literary hoaxes, I found Hocus Bogus to be the most interesting. The story of Romain Gary, a French author, is best told from the New York Times:
Gary’s story is a tale of a very tangled web. The celebrated French author, a winner of the Prix Goncourt (which authors can only win once) but past his prime, decided in 1973 to liven things up for his 20th novel by writing under a pseudonym, Émile Ajar. To sustain the lie once his second Ajar book, “The Life Before Us,” became one of the biggest commercial and literary blockbusters of his career (and won him the Goncourt again), Gary had his cousin play the flesh-and-blood Ajar to receive the award. When this ruse was discovered, Gary then had to write a faux-memoir, “Pseudo,” claiming schizophrenia and confusing things still further. The truth of Gary’s elaborate literary deceptions emerged only after his death by suicide, in a confession he left behind, titled “The Life and Death of Émile Ajar.”
To learn more about these literary hoaxes and others, click on the links below.
Happy Reading!
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/books/april-fools-literary-hoaxes.html
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/05/top-10-literary-hoaxes-mark-blacklock
T.M. Jacobs, a native to the shoreline area of Connecticut, now resides in various locations along the east coast with his wife traveling and working from their RV motorhome. He has written and published 15 books (one of which was featured on C-SPAN), over 450 articles published in various newspapers and magazines, teaches classes on writing and publishing, and is currently the owner of JWC Publishing. He is the founder and former editor for Patriots of the American Revolution magazine and has been a freelance writer since 1988.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timjacobsghostwriter/
Website: www.jacobswc.com
Email: [email protected]
