Contents
Book one. A history of the hoax
I. The American museum: on the madness of crowds
1. The age of imposture 7
Humbug ; P.T. Barnum ; Matthias the prophet ; The moon hoax ; Poe ; Tales --
2. The freaks of Dame Fortune : 27
Joice Heth ; The mummy ; The mammy ; What is it? ; The Circassian beauty --
3. Splitfoot : Spiritualism 45
William H. Mumler ; The Fox sisters ; Spirit photography ; Heaven tourism ; The Cottingley fairy hoax ; Arthur Conan Doyle --
4. Bearded ladies 63
The Lincoln letters ; The "Dreadnought" hoax ; George Psalmanazar ; Girl wonders ; Opal Whiteley ; Joan Lowell ; Travel liars --
II. Neverland: on race & other popular delusions :
5. Cowboys & aliens 95
Pornographies ; Imaginary Indians ; Grey Owl ; Nasdijj --
6. Blood nation : 117
Memoir ; James Frey ; Margaret B. Jones ; Little Tree ; Captivity ; Poetic license --
7. Lost boys 139
Faction ; Forbidden love ; Three cups of tea ; Gay girl in Damascus ; Mutant message down under --
8. The time machine 161
Lost races ; Professor Agassiz ; Dr. Moreau ; Degeneration ; Miscegenation ; War of the worlds ; Piltdown man ; The Cardiff giant ; The Tasaday --
III. Mysteria: a sideshow
9. The heart is deceitful 189
JT LeRoy ; Lance Armstrong ; Laura Albert ; Sybil ; Anthony Godby Johnson ; Hysteria --
10. Eve Black 211
Eve White ; South Virginia ; Avatar ; Millennialism --
Book two. The hoaxing of history
: IV. The vampire's mirror: of imposture, forgery & monsters
11 Butterfly books 233
Frankensteins ; Frederic Prokosch ; Lily ; Thomas Wise ; Major Byron ; Voices --
12 Spruce Goose 253
The Hitler diaries ; The autobiography of Howard Hughes ; Can you ever forgive me? ; Fake! ; Elmyr --
13 Bakelite 271
Han Van Meegeren ; The Hitler diaries ; Jerzy Kosinski --
14 The vampire's wife 285
The painted bird ; Binjamin Wilkomirski ; Laura Grabowski ; Autofiction --
V. Hack heaven: of the journalist & liar
15 Glass ceilings 305
The new narrative ; Ravi Desai ; The New Republic ; Ern Malley ; Ruth Shalit ; Stephen Glass ; The journalist & the murderer --
16 The gingerbread man 327
Taxis & the meaning of work ; Kae Bang --
17 In bad blood 343
Susan Smith ; Brutal imagination ; The Washington Post ; Jimmy's world ; Ben's world ; Volunteer slavery --
18 Burning down 359
The New York Times ; Jayson Blair ; Michael Finkel ; The truth --
VI. Unoriginal sin: on plagiary, murder, bad poetry & other crimes :
19. Blacker than thou 381
Rachel Dolezal --
20. Professor Plum 391
Plagiary ; Clark Rockefeller ; Gatsby --
21 Ghostbusters 397
Kaavya Viswanathan ; Opal Mehta ; Adam Wheeler ; William-Henry Ireland --
22 Michael Brown's body 411
Trumpism ; The ecstasy of influence ; Conceptual poetry ; Lynching ; Christian Ward ; Brad Vice --
Coda : The age of euphemism 431