Daniel Lombardo, the curator of Special Collections at the Jones Library in Aumherst, Massachusetts, had no idea, as he set off almost twelve years after the events of that night, to drive the fifteen miles to Amherst from his home near West Hampton, that the shock waves from that bomb were about to shake the foundations on which he had built his life.
Description:
Once again, the first sentence hooked me. There's talk of libraries, bombs, crimes, mysteries ... my favorite topics for wiling away hours of reading. Even the title, The Poet and the Murderer: A True Story of Literary Crime and the Art of Forgery, sets my heart aflutter with potential. A book that combines poetry, murder, forgery, and literature, well, there's no doubt I'm all in. And Simon Worrall definitely delivers in all these disparate areas.
This is the true story of the discovery of a previously-unknown poem by Emily Dickinson, which she possibly wrote to a child as "Aunt Emily" is scrawled on the back. The poem is authenticated by Sotheby's and other Dickinson experts, and then purchased by the Jones Library located in Dickinson's hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts.
But almost immediately, Danial Lombaro, the Special Collections curator of the library and the poem's purchaser, begins to harbor some doubt about its authenticity despite the reassurances from experts on Dickinson, handwriting, and rare documents. Can it possibly be a fake?
Lombardo learns that a convicted forger, Mark Hoffman, a few years ago offered an original Dickinson poem to another rare documents collector. Hoffman has been convicted of producing numerous fake documents to discredit Joseph Smith and the Mormon Church. Hoffman is know to have created
The trail leads Lombardo through the workings of Sotheby's auction house, rare document collectors, Emily Dickinson, Joseph Smith and the Mormon Church, the expert analysis of rarities, techniques of forgery, and the man who interacts with all of these -- Mark Hoffman, forger and double murderer.
It's a fascinating trail author Worrall uncovers. He reports numerous details of Hoffman's cleverness and skill in his criminal art. Hoffman could forge hundreds of handwriting styles and signatures. To provide authentic materials he tears out blank end papers of library books from the appropriate era. He even develops crude techniques to age the ink on the documents using a vacuum cleaner. These homemade techniques fool experts over and over.
When any document is questioned, Hoffman simply forges another document that refers to the questionable document, neatly providing a false provenance of authenticity. Simple and effective. Hoffman has discovered that his forgeries don't have to be perfect because people want desperately to believe documents are real.
But, of course, things eventually go wrong for Hoffman and his story unfolds to it murderous conclusion referred to in the first pages. Hoffman must protect himself from people who might discredit him and expose his forgeries, and murder seems his most likely, his only, option.
Worrall is a strong, clear writer capable or weaving a gripping story around the fascinating research on Dickinson and Hoffman that he uncovered. From interesting people to religious history to the techniques of forgery, Worrall completely grabs readers into this world that begins with one undiscovered poem.
This is the true story of the discovery of a previously-unknown poem by Emily Dickinson, which she possibly wrote to a child as "Aunt Emily" is scrawled on the back. The poem is authenticated by Sotheby's and other Dickinson experts, and then purchased by the Jones Library located in Dickinson's hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts.
But almost immediately, Danial Lombaro, the Special Collections curator of the library and the poem's purchaser, begins to harbor some doubt about its authenticity despite the reassurances from experts on Dickinson, handwriting, and rare documents. Can it possibly be a fake?
Lombardo learns that a convicted forger, Mark Hoffman, a few years ago offered an original Dickinson poem to another rare documents collector. Hoffman has been convicted of producing numerous fake documents to discredit Joseph Smith and the Mormon Church. Hoffman is know to have created
a string of literary forgeries nearly always of American icons, charismatic historical figures who touched a deep chord in the national consciousness, like Abraham Lincoln, Betsy Ross, or Daniel Boone.Hoffman currently is in jail, having been convicted of a double murder and is currently serving a life sentence. Was there a connection between this "new" Dickinson poem and Hoffman, the forger/murderer?
The trail leads Lombardo through the workings of Sotheby's auction house, rare document collectors, Emily Dickinson, Joseph Smith and the Mormon Church, the expert analysis of rarities, techniques of forgery, and the man who interacts with all of these -- Mark Hoffman, forger and double murderer.
It's a fascinating trail author Worrall uncovers. He reports numerous details of Hoffman's cleverness and skill in his criminal art. Hoffman could forge hundreds of handwriting styles and signatures. To provide authentic materials he tears out blank end papers of library books from the appropriate era. He even develops crude techniques to age the ink on the documents using a vacuum cleaner. These homemade techniques fool experts over and over.
When any document is questioned, Hoffman simply forges another document that refers to the questionable document, neatly providing a false provenance of authenticity. Simple and effective. Hoffman has discovered that his forgeries don't have to be perfect because people want desperately to believe documents are real.
But, of course, things eventually go wrong for Hoffman and his story unfolds to it murderous conclusion referred to in the first pages. Hoffman must protect himself from people who might discredit him and expose his forgeries, and murder seems his most likely, his only, option.
Worrall is a strong, clear writer capable or weaving a gripping story around the fascinating research on Dickinson and Hoffman that he uncovered. From interesting people to religious history to the techniques of forgery, Worrall completely grabs readers into this world that begins with one undiscovered poem.
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Irving, Clifford. Fake! The Adventures of the Premier Art Forger of the Modern Era
Fascinating, true account of the man who created huge numbers of fake paintings from the masters like Matisse, Picasso, Monet, and many others, including many works currently hanging in museums today.
Shipiro, B.A. The Art Forger
An art student is commissioned to re-create a painting under secret conditions. She it told it is an original Vermeer, the same one stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. But she suspects it might also be a fake and hers might be used as the real one to claim the $5 million reward. (previously reviewed here)
