The Peccancies of T J. Wise, et al.

Some Aftermaths of the Exposure

ROLAND BAUGHMAN
 

IT IS almost exactly twenty years since John Carter and
Graham Pollard revealed the fakery behind those troublesome
"nineteenth-century pamphlets." Their disclosures were first
published in the summer of 1934. They laid open with surgical
precision the fatty layers of bibliographical misinformation sur¬
rounding the origins and subsequent histories of the pamphlets,
and brought to light a series of virulent facts. It is easy enough now
to ridicule the "experts" whose lack of vigilance had permitted the
disease to spread ro such an advanced stage—indeed, such ridicul¬
ing speedily became the favorite line with certain people who
were, apparently, gifted with very clear hindsight. The simple
fact of the matter is that most of us in the fields of collecting,
bibliography, and librarianship were caught flatfooted by the ex¬
posure, and were dumbfounded to learn that the costly little pam¬
phlets which we had cherished so proudly were, in reality, spurious
things without honorable pedigree, without value to collectors,
and without merit or significance to scholarship.

It should be clearly understood that, with one or two exceptions
which came dangerously near to giving the show away before it
was well begun, the forger had not tried to imitate known edi¬
tions. Nor did he create texts, as most literary forgers before him
had done. His contribution to the fine art of fraud was beautifully
simple and direct. Selecting an authentic text that had not appeared
in separate form he reprinted it with an earlier date than that of the
bonafide edition; and then labored diligently to inject into the
bibliographic record some gossipy cock-and-bull story of its
origin—that would not conflict too seriously with the known facts.