Yeah, I know, you're wondering which writer I'm talking about: Laura Albert, James Frey, Nasdijj . . . the list seems to go on and on.
Actually, I'm talking about Misha Defonseca, who claimed that she lived with wolves as a child while hiding from Nazis. You can read my first post on her book here.
According to an Associated Press story on Monday:
Defonseca never lived with wolves to escape the Nazis, never killed a German soldier in self-defense, never walked 3,000 miles across Europe in search of her parents. Contrary to the book's claims, Defonseca admitted in February that she isn't even Jewish.On Thursday, Defonseca's U.S. publisher is taking the writer to court. The publisher, Jane Daniel, believes the $32.4 millon judgment she was ordered to pay Defonseca and her ghost writer in 2001 would never have been levied had the court known Defonseca was a fraud.
According to the Associated Press:
The two sued Daniel for breach of contract. In 2001, a Middlesex District Court jury found that Daniel had failed to promote the book as promised and had hidden profits. The jury awarded Defonseca $7.5 million and Lee $3.3 million, but those amounts were later tripled by a judge who found Daniel and her small publishing company, Mt. Ivy Press, had misled both women and tried to claim royalties herself by rewriting the book.
Defonseca's attorney says too much time has gone by to revisit the verdict. But Daniel's attorney says that Defonseca only admitted to her fraud six months ago.
Stay tuned to see what happens . . .
1 comment:
Was it P.T. Barnum who said, "You can fool some of the people all of the time into believing you were raised by wolves . . . ?"
Seriously, for anyone out there who bought into the raised-by-wolves story, which is no more plausible that a raised-by-anteaters story or a raised-by-Ann-Coulter story, Darwin has a theory about you.
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