The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-09-28
LITERARY FORGER|ES,
The Way That Sir Walter Scott
Was Basely Deceived.
cuNNINGHAM's PROUD BOAST
This Scotchman Claimed He Could
Fool a Congress OF Antiquarians
With His Own Writings and Ballads.
Other Famous Forgers.

With His Own Writings and Ballads.
Other Famous Forgers.
az could cheat q whole general as
sembly of antiquarians with my origi-
nal manner Of writing and forging bal
lads, The man who made this proud /
boast Allan Cunningham, was /
voutbfuI sronemason of Scotland, earn |
inc 10 shfllings a week. That he was |
no idle braygart is evident, says the |
london Bits. from the fact that in /
his tyenty-fifth year he perpetrated |
one of the greatest literary frauds OF
the nineteenth century
Cunningham in spite of his humble
role in life could write poetry the
beauty and pathos of which would
bring tears TO the eyes of the reader.
Apparently. however, he possessed a
desire-ch Of many rogues
of literary genius-to make experts
look foolish. and when Mr.. Cromek,
who in 1909 was travelling in Scotland
with a view to making collection of
genuine Scottish songs, asked Cunning
ham to assist him the stonemason
conceived the idea of writing ballads
and passing them off on Cromek as old
Scottish productions
These were included in a volume,
and. although most of the critics de-
tected the fraud and Ii was establish
ed beyond doubt that Cunningham
wrote the ballads himself, they &C
quired an immediate reputation, and
the genius of the writer led people to
overlook the deception.
Nor was Cunningham the only forger
of Scottish ballads. Robert Surtees,
the celebrated antiquary and historian,
/ for some curious reason not only palm
ed off on Sir Walter Scott as antique
three ballads purely of his own COM
| position, but actually suffered them TO
occupy a place in the "Minstrelsy or
| the Scottish Border" with fictitious
account of their origin, and left the
novelist deceived to the end of his
days.
Mention of the deception of Sir Wal
ter Scott reminds one that the famous
novelist was the victim on several oc-
casions of literary forgers who used
| his name to boom their own work.
George W. Haering, who under the
| pseudonym of Willibald Alexis came
to be one of Germany's first novelists
| of the early part of the nineteenth
century, published his first book, wal
ladmor," and announced it as free
translation into German of novel
boldly ascribed to Sir Walter Scott.
He afterward endeavored to excuse
himself on the ground that people had
been stupid enough not to see in wal
ladmor'' a satircal attack on the craze
then prevalent for Scott's works.
In France several mimetic attempts
on Scott have been made, notably AL
Ian Cameron" 1S32) and "Ayme Verd''
| QS42), which were both published in
Paris as being SCOTS. and La Pythie
des Highlands" introduced to the
world as the work of the famous nov
elist in 1914 by Charles ]. David, sor
Of the famous French painter.
But perhaps the most interesting OF
all the attempts to trade on SCOTS
name was that connected with the
name of E. de Saint Maurice Cabany
director general of the Society o.
Archivistes of France, who in 1885,
startled the literary world with new
" discovered novel by Scott, entitled
"Moredun, Tale of the 1910"
In J. A Farmers book, entitled "Lit
erary Forgeries," it is explained how
. on account of inaccuracies in dates ant
. the description of places, this move
could not have been written by Scott
but the authorship remains a mys
terry.
4 The prince of literary forgers, as re
8 CARDS quantity, also halls from France
This was Vrain-Denis Lucas, the sol
Z of a peasant who after providing cer
I tain classes of people with more o
Z less spurious pedigrees perpetrated on
of the most colossal literary frauds o
q the nineteenth century by successfully
q palming off 1890 forged letters of ar
n cient and eminent men to NJ. Chasles
q man of worldwide reputation as
geometrician and astronomer, who PAL
Q Lucas nearly $4,000 for the collection.
Lucas false letters included som
. from the apostles, from Plato, Pliny
Lazarus and Mary Magdalene. An
2 yet NJ Chasles did not consider it el
2 traordinary that these worthless wrot
Z on paper and in the French language
Ultimately his eyes We're opened, an
Lucas was arrested and sentenced I
two years Imprisonment.
IS The well known story of "Psalman;
Ear, the Famous Formosan," show
3 how easily the public can be impose
| upon III TcSdTu ~ llteIdluTe 1ulS II
markable individual made his appea
ance in London early in the eighteent
n century. claimed to be native of Fo
. mosa and wrote in Latin his very sil
gular Description of Formosa.' III
book, which was pure concoction, di
not deceive anybody, but for man
years its author remained an obje'
of faith and charity to considerab
section of his adopted countryn len
He repented, however. of his fIau'
and his life ended with the esteem
many while DR.. Johnson spoke of hi
as 1.-The best man he ever knew" B'
'e who Psalmanazar really was remain
u to this day literary secret.
s Even more audacious perhaps ws
q the attempt Of an Irish clergyma
q named Eccles resident of Bath, WI
q toward the end of the eighteenth ce
II +,--x- cIoiu1pd to have written "a Ms