Stolen Words (Harvest Book)

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat Outdated, but Still Somewhat Relevant
Review: Billed as "The Classic Book On Plagiarism" in the subtitle of this work, Thomas Mallon's Stolen Words is somewhat outdated by now in the first decade of the new Millennium.

That's not to say the discussion of some older cases of plagiarism isn't interesting. Mallon's skill with words is quite evident in his discussion of these older cases such as the Epstein affair, the Falcon Crest hubbub, and other instances of plagiarism from the 1980s. To be fair there is a new "Afterword" on plagiarism in the most recent reprints.

But what about some of the most recent cases of plagiarism to break such as the Jayson Blair farce at the New York Times? The Jack Kelley flap at the USA Today? The Internet plagiarism and cheatsite/term-paper mill industry which has burgeoned since the early 1990s and on into the 2000s? These are missing from what is otherwise an excellent treatise on plagiarism, including a psychological analysis of the phenomenon.

To sum up then, Stolen Words is somewhat dated at this point, possibly still worth the read, but likely not to make a connection with the younger generation of readers in particular. Academically stimulating and more useful for historical cases than current happenings with the plagiarism phenomenon.


Dr. Herbert Ulysses Quickwit


Rating:
Summary: Nothing New Under the Sun
Review: Seeing that this book had not yet garnered any reviews, I thought I would put in a word for Mallon's engrossing and fast-paced study of what is (to my mind anyway) a fascinating topic. In light of recent revelations about the work of Kearns Goodwin and Ambrose, it makes for a timely and lively read. In his opening thumbnail sketch of the history of plagiarism, Mallon shows how major literary figures such as Laurence Sterne, Coleridge and de Quincey infused their works with ample unattributed borrowings. (Sterne, for instance, stole heavily from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy -- even going so far as to plagiarize a passage about plagiarism -- and plagiarized his own love letters to his wife in letters he sent to his mistress years later.) The real gems here, though, are Mallon's discussion of modern scandals. Mallon writes about the novel "Wild Oats" by Jacob Epstein, a late '70s lit wonder boy with all the connections, who fell from grace when his plagiarisms of Martin Amis's "Rachel Papers" were revealed. (Reading Epstein's novel, the passages stolen from Amis seem to Mallon like "plateaus on otherwise flat land," roughly.) And in the cleverly titled chapter "Quiet Goes the Don," about former Texas Tech history professor Jamie Sokolow, Mallon shows how reluctant the academic establishment, down to the AAUP and American Historical Association, was to take action against an obvious and known plagiarist. (Sokolow, after he was coaxed out of Texas Tech, ended up evaluating historical research for the NEH in Washington.)

This book fascinatingly plumbs the psychology of the plagiarist, for example his seeming desire to get caught. (Epstein's novel features students who buy essays from term-paper companies, and a child who is punished for plagiarizing Winnie the Pooh.) An afterword on the internet is interesting but too brief, and the postmodernist challenge to authorship is dealt with too lightly and dismissively for my tastes; however, I would heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject. For further reading, I would suggest a memoir by Neal Bowers, a victim of plagiarism, called "Words for the Taking." Also Anne Fadiman's essay in Ex Libris (from which I have "stolen" my title, heh heh). Of course, she had her own sources.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing New Under the Sun
Review: Seeing that this book had not yet garnered any reviews, I thought I would put in a word for Mallon's engrossing and fast-paced study of what is (to my mind anyway) a fascinating topic. In light of recent revelations about the work of Kearns Goodwin and Ambrose, it makes for a timely and lively read. In his opening thumbnail sketch of the history of plagiarism, Mallon shows how major literary figures such as Laurence Sterne, Coleridge and de Quincey infused their works with ample unattributed borrowings. (Sterne, for instance, stole heavily from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy -- even going so far as to plagiarize a passage about plagiarism -- and plagiarized his own love letters to his wife in letters he sent to his mistress years later.) The real gems here, though, are Mallon's discussion of modern scandals. Mallon writes about the novel "Wild Oats" by Jacob Epstein, a late '70s lit wonder boy with all the connections, who fell from grace when his plagiarisms of Martin Amis's "Rachel Papers" were revealed. (Reading Epstein's novel, the passages stolen from Amis seem to Mallon like "plateaus on otherwise flat land," roughly.) And in the cleverly titled chapter "Quiet Goes the Don," about former Texas Tech history professor Jamie Sokolow, Mallon shows how reluctant the academic establishment, down to the AAUP and American Historical Association, was to take action against an obvious and known plagiarist. (Sokolow, after he was coaxed out of Texas Tech, ended up evaluating historical research for the NEH in Washington.)

This book fascinatingly plumbs the psychology of the plagiarist, for example his seeming desire to get caught. (Epstein's novel features students who buy essays from term-paper companies, and a child who is punished for plagiarizing Winnie the Pooh.) An afterword on the internet is interesting but too brief, and the postmodernist challenge to authorship is dealt with too lightly and dismissively for my tastes; however, I would heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject. For further reading, I would suggest a memoir by Neal Bowers, a victim of plagiarism, called "Words for the Taking." Also Anne Fadiman's essay in Ex Libris (from which I have "stolen" my title, heh heh). Of course, she had her own sources.