April Fool's Day 2011: Best Literary Hoaxes Of All Time

Nobody plays better tricks on people than writers, and we're celebrating April Fools' by looking back at some of the greatest literary hoaxes of all time. From a faked document by Roman Emperor Constantine to the woman who posed as a young transvestite prostitute as the author of a series of books, the tradition of less-than-truthful writing is as old as writing itself. The authors below go beyond James Frey changing some details of his life story; these people invented entirely new personas and documents that left the whole world fooled.

Did we miss your favorites? Let us know in the comments below.

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"Jean-Baptiste Botul"

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In February 2010, the famous French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy was duped by a fake 20th century philosopher, Jean-Baptiste Botul. When Levy made some incendiary claims about Immanuel Kant, calling him "raving mad" and a "fake," he used Botul for support. Turns out it wasn't Kant who was the fake: Botul was created in 1999 by journalist Frederic Pages.

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In February 2010, the famous French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy was duped by a fake 20th century philosopher, Jean-Baptiste Botul. When Levy made some incendiary claims about Immanuel Kant, calling him "raving mad" and a "fake," he used Botul for support. Turns out it wasn't Kant who was the fake: Botul was created in 1999 by journalist Frederic Pages.

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This Hoax

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Not too bad Shocking!

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Comments

[Dean P]

09:11 AM on 04/06/2011

And where, pray tell, is Sid Finch?

[iwritereadrate]

12:15 PM on 04/04/2011

Really interesting article...thanks for posting.

[Bryan Young]

11:48 AM on 04/04/2011

I was hoping they'd mention Chuck Pahlaniuck. That guy is duping people all the time into thinking he's good.

[nokaoi]

12:23 AM on 04/04/2011

thought they'd mention frey's book, " a million little pieces", which kept oprah awake at night...but turned out to be mostly hyperbole.

[ESerafina42]

08:03 PM on 04/03/2011

"The Priory of Sion, the secret society in Brown's book, was actually invented in the 1950's, the debunkers say, by Pierre Plantard. Plantard created false documents that connected him to the supposed illustrious secret society and than planted those documents in the French national library."
___
,
Gotta have those weasel words, "debunkers say." What wimps.

[Secularist]

03:35 PM on 04/03/2011

I would add to the list, Norma Khouri's "Forbidden Love". Khouri, a professional con-artist, even became the subject of the documentary about this literary hoax, "Forbidden Lies."

[Bishop Baker]

08:42 PM on 04/02/2011

What's the beef with these guys? They entertained and distracted us (or many others before us) and what the hell is litspeak/newsspeak all about anyway? In "A Newer Testament" Yam Snosnobor defends literary invention: "Folks have a Constitutional Right to be exposed to outrageous and exciting ideas. Simon Elron has a story to tell. I'm proud to be an enabler when it comes to freedom of expression." Simon adds: "Folks are ready to challenge the judgments of their forefathers and examine shocking new verdicts. I am but the amanuensis for their hidden musings." These 13 guys deserve laurels, not shackles. Chill out!

[Leper]

11:59 PM on 04/01/2011

Penelope Ashe is all but forgotten.

NSFW:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_Came_the_Stranger

[Susan1122]

09:04 PM on 04/01/2011

How about "Dianetics" by L. Ron Hubbard.

[Gronkie]

08:23 PM on 04/01/2011

There was the guy a few years ago who was forging important Mormon documents and then planting them in the archives. When people got suspicious he tried to cover his tracks by setting off a couple of bombs and killing people.

[Uncommonland]

06:25 PM on 04/01/2011

Oh, don't forget the Book of Mormon!
Farah Faucit Jenkins wasn't a literary hoax but the critics of New York music put her up as the concert of the century and not to be missed. They filled the house for a couple of concert seasons for her and she made a lot of money screeching her way to music hell.

[Jerod Keller]

04:30 PM on 04/01/2011

When I was a senior in college I kept a fake "diary" and wrote it in every day for an entire semester about how I was a sophomore attempting to join a fraternity and the subsequent sexual abuse that I suffered at the hands of all my frat brothers throughout my initiation and eventual membership of the fraternity. I left the "diary" anonymously in my university's newspaper offices drop-box. The resulting headlines and investigations were hilarious.

[Fernando]

03:23 PM on 04/02/2011

That was uncalled for... but funny.

[Mark Coker]

04:20 PM on 04/01/2011

Smashwords Acquired Amazon today and the new company will be called Smashazon. Smashwords will have Amazon exit the edible undergarments business:

http://blog.smashwords.com/2011/03/smashwords-acquires-amazon.html

[BlackJAC]

04:13 PM on 04/01/2011

I wouldn't call The da Vinci Code a hoax because it was marketed as straight-up fiction right out of the gate.  Brown was simply working off bad info at the time the same way Clive Cussler was when he did Raise the Titanic.  And Little Billy's Letters are more in line with what Sacha Baron Cohen did with Borat and Bruno than what Clifford Irving and Margaret B. Jones did.

[KathleenV01930]

04:11 PM on 04/01/2011

Don't forget Misha DeFonseca: Misha Admits It Was A Hoax! ( http://parlezmoiblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/too-many-questions.html ). She won a 33 MILLION dollar judgment against her publisher while perpetrating the hoax.