'Three Cups of Tea': Is the publishing industry to blame for fabricated memoirs?

When news emerged Sunday that the veracity of parts of Greg Mortenson’s memoir, "Three Cups of Tea," was now in question, it became the latest in a growing list of falsified memoirs, an embarrassment that’s been of chronic concern to the publishing industry of late.

First there was James Frey, the most famous of the recent fabricators. When he admitted his memoir, “A Million Little Pieces,” was embellished – including a critical section in which he detailed a dramatic account of hitting a police officer with his car while high on crack – he opened the floodgates to a barrage of censure from his readers, the media, and of course, Oprah Winfrey, who lambasted him on her show. Still, Frey’s career continues, his books get more press than they ever before, and his young adult novel “I Am Number Four” was released as a film earlier this week.

And then there was Margaret Seltzer, who penned the boldly falsified memoir, “Love and Consequences,” under the pen name Margaret B. Jones. She wrote movingly about growing up in gritty neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles (she grew up in comfortable Sherman Oaks), about her foster brother getting gunned down in front of their foster home (she never lived in foster care), about running drugs for the Bloods (she didn’t), and about growing up half Native American (she isn’t). Seltzer even went on tour for her completely made-up memoir until her own sister outed her.

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Not only was Laura Albert’s book made-up, the author was, too. Albert, a middle-aged woman, penned a memoir under the name JT LeRoy, a young man, a pseudo-character who even showed up for interviews played by Albert’s friend, Savannah Knoop, disguised in sunglasses and a wig. The fraud fell through when Knoop forgot such details as LeRoy’s own supposed age.

Others, including Herman Rosenblat, Misha Defonseca, and Nasdijj, have also joined the reluctant ranks of outed memoir-fakers. In fact, inaccurate memoirs have enjoyed a very long history.

Now, thanks to CBS’ 60 Minutes exposé, Mortenson, the modern-day saint of the publishing world, seems to be yet one more besieged fabricator, though the extent of his fraud is yet unknown.

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