How many memoirs are true stories?

The full text of my opinion column today, “How many memoirs are true stories?”:

In the case of Margaret Jones’ Love and Consequences, the memoir of a half-white and half-Native American girl who ran drugs and lived in foster homes, the word truth does not apply. After all the critical acclaim and the sale of some 19,000 copies, publisher Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin Group (USA), is recalling the book and offering refunds for those who have already bought it.

The book is a hoax. Margaret Jones is not some mixed-up kid who lived in the underbelly of Los Angeles’ drug culture. She is Margaret Seltzer, all-white, from a well-to-do family, grew up in Sherman Oaks, attended private schools, was never a drug-runner nor a foster home resident. She wrote her “memoirs” while sitting at Starbucks café.

The editor from the publishing house who worked with Seltzer for three years on the books says she was stunned. Seltzer’s manuscript came with supporting photos, testimonials and letters of support from an alleged former professor and foster home residents and it seemed like the real thing. The obvious question, for me at least, is how much responsibility and diligence did the editors and publishing company exercise to determine the truth of the story. Do publishers take memoirs at face value and not even bother with a background check?

Of course, it’s a scandal. But it’s a scandal that will leave the publishing industry unscathed for the most part. Seltzer alone seems to be taking all the fall for her lies. No one’s talking about any possible negligence on the part of the editors and publisher. Not yet anyway.

Is it an isolated incident?

Just last week, Misha Defonseca, author of Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years admitted that the story was pure fiction. Published in 1997, translated into 18 languages and made into a film in France, Misha’s memoir tells of how she lived with a pack of wolves during the Holocaust after she ran away from home to search for her parents.

Defonseca wrote the book at the instance of a US publisher who heard her tell the story in a synagogue. Publisher and author later had a falling out over profits. A lawsuit ensued and Defonseca won a $22.5-million award that the publisher was ordered to pay.

Note that Defonseca’s life with the wolves was nothing more than a story until a publisher decided it would be profitable as a book. According to a CNN report, the publisher claimed that “she could not fully research Defonseca’s story before it was published because the woman claimed she did not know her parents’ names, her birthday or where she was born.” Right, unable to substantiate yet the publisher decided it was good enough to be classified as a memoir.

Two isolated incidents?

In 2003, Riverhead Books, the same division of Penguin Group (USA) that gave the world Seltzer’s Love and Consequences, published a book by James Frey called A Million Little Pieces. The book was allegedly Frey’s memoir about his days as an alcoholic, drug addict and criminal. It was raw, it was moving and it was on the Oprah Winfrey Book Club. The Winfrey endorsement turned it into the second highest-selling book in the US in 2005, second to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Then, The Smoking Gun entered the picture. What is The Smoking Gun? It is a Web site and its about page reads in part: “The Smoking Gun brings you exclusive documents–cool, confidential, quirky–that can’t be found elsewhere on the Web. Using material obtained from government and law enforcement sources, via Freedom of Information requests, and from court files nationwide, we guarantee everything here is 100 percent authentic. The site was founded in April 1997. In December 2000, The Smoking Gun was acquired by Court TV, a basic cable network with more than 80 million subscribers.”

When a Web site that thrives on scandals and controversies casts doubt on the integrity of a memoir, no one jumps immediately and makes retractions. Then, Oprah Winfrey invited Frey to her show and confronted him with the inaccuracies in his story. Live on TV, Nan Talese, senior vice president of Doubleday which published the hardcover edition of Frey’s book, was forced to admit that no background checks were made on Frey’s story. The transcript of the episode of Oprah is available on www.oprah.com.

A group of readers filed a suit. The book publisher had set aside over $20 million for precisely such an event, but only 1,729 readers actually sought refunds and that amounted to only $27,348.

Imagine the lies. Imagine the negligence. Imagine how the combination of dishonesty and greed becomes profitable. Ironically, the profitability hinges on the ability to successfully dupe the public. In all these instances, no one went to prison for lying or for negligence. Selzter was paid “less than $100,000″ for her story and no one’s saying she returned the money. Defonseca had that additional $22.5 million after suing her publisher. Frey went on to publish more books, become a film screenwriter, director and producer. All publishing houses involved are still in business.

You’d think that in the case of memoirs, publishers would be more vigilant in checking the facts. After all, every person mentioned in a memoir, even when the names have been changed, is a potential plaintiff in a libel case.

You’d think that nothing can be more real than biographies and autobiographies. The problem with biographies is that the author is a third person who does not have all the facts. The problem with autobiographies is that the author knows all the facts but will never tell all because he does not want the public to hate him. The only thing that a biographer and an autobiographer have in common is the desire to profit with the stories they have written.

By the way, The Amityville Horror Story is fiction as well. Despite having been verified by “paranormal experts,” the original perpetrators of the story have admitted that it was hatched during a drinking spree.