Posted on 04/25/2010 4:09:15 AM PDT by Daffynition
and Alex Haley - Roots
From:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404707338.html
Courlander claimed that plots in Haley’s Roots were directly lifted from The African. Haley argued that the story was exclusively that of his own family’s rise from slavery in America. The lawsuit made headlines throughout the United States during the summer and fall of 1978. After six weeks of testimony, Haley offered to settle the case. He expressed his regret to Courlander, and made a financial settlement. Haley’s reputation was damaged, while the integrity of Courlander was maintained. For a brief time, Courlander’s name was noted outside the small circle who had always been familiar with his work.
The footnotes are pretty extensive for it and I view it as a scholarly piece.
Hope I am right.
bump
I don’t believe it.
When I used to watch C-Span, I remember Ambrose say that he once had a drinking problem.
Why would Tim Rives, the deputy director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, in Abilene, Kansas lie?
From the New Yorker:
‘Tim Rives, who still considers himself an Ambrose fan in spite of these discoveries and the various brushes with plagiarism that Ambrose had later in his career, said, “The discussion of so many diverse subjects in less than three hours strains credulity.” He pointed out how minutely Eisenhower’s busy schedule was documented. “He answered letters for the first hour of the day, before receiving guests,” he said. “On doctor’s orders, he napped after lunch. He greeted more visitors after his nap, or took telephone calls, which could reach more than three thousand a month. A quick round of golf might follow the workday.” He went on, “This full schedule demanded that anyone wanting an appointment with him needed to begin the process months ahead of time. His declining health also limited access, especially for scholars. He simply didn’t see that much of Stephen Ambrose.”’
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2010/04/26/100426ta_talk_rayner#ixzz0m7BooYP9
Hemingway. Edgar Allen Poe. Stephen Crane. Theodore Roethke. Herman Melville. Delmore Schwartz. Scott Fitzgerald. William Faulkner.... Philip Roth, Kurt Vonnegut, John Irving, John Cheever, Robert Lowell and Flannery O'Connor...........
'Ronald R. Fieve, in his 1975 book Moodswings, concedes that creative individuals tend to be eccentric and erratic, but he does not agree with the general Freudian idea that creativity is simply a response to emotional pain. That thesis "would say that art is rooted in sickness," he writes. "I would conclude that individuals are creative despite their disorders, but certainly not because of them."'
And after Al Gore invents the internet Homer will post his version on a day-to-day basis.
John Grisham, Stephen King and Tom Clancy fall into this category as well as WEB Griffin, Stephen Ambrose and James Michener.
All are talented writers but the pressure to get a bunch of books to market definitely diluted the quality of what they were putting out.
What you say is true. I’ve always enjoyed the fictionalized biographies/novels by Irving Stone ... they are what they are.
Is this Ambrose’s first accusation of fabrication?
Look, no one knows better than I, who have published some 25 books, how easy it is to think you "thought of" something original when in fact you had read it in another source a long time ago and forgot that in fact you were dredging up words that you had internalized. All authors do it---it's like a musician thinking he has come up with an original lick only to hear a record played 20 years earlier that he had heard and forgotten.
The safe way to do that is to document the heck out of EVERYTHING. I probably over cite, because it isn't right to copy other's phrases or whatever.
But on the negative side, SA built a little history empire, which involved research assistants gathering and even writing some of his stuff, then him putting finishing touches on, and in that case, you absolutely cannot police it effectively.
As for the time spent with Ike, that's serious stuff, and his bio of Ike was in large part built on this face time. Isn't it ironic, then, that Ambrose, who probably did NOT have the face time with his subject, wrote an objective and fair treatment while Edmund Morris who DID have unprecedented access to Reagan, completely blew it by inserting fictional characters (himself) repeatedly throughout the book "Dutch"?
Well, no one’s saying Ambrose slept with Eisenhower.
I have no reason to distrust McCullough, however.
There is no doubt that so much of his work is documented and truthful. If it wasn't, the thousands of veterans he interviewed directly would have screamed bloody murder. In fact, some of them did when he wrote one book, because they didn't have a chance to correct his inaccuracies. He didn't make that same mistake with subsequent books about WW II, and said so in his Prologue.
Now, with regard to the Eisenhower interviews, who knows.
I will say this - there was something a bit off and creepy about Ambrose, the man.
In interviews, he comes off sometimes as pissed off. He was a vehement Leftist, despite his love of American GIs and the war against Nazi Germany and Totalitarianism.
He was a big supporter of people like Clinton. He was friends with McGovern, although McGovern was a genuine WW II hero (B-24 pilot, DFC, 35 mission, etc).
Dunno the answer. This is the first I’ve heard of it ... which means nothing. ;)
That sir is an excellent point.
See my other post about Ambrose. With your writing background, I see your vantage point and agree with what you said.
Interesting observation, and I’ll withhold judgment on SA the man. I never met him, although one of my colleagues from NO did, and found him very ambitious and self-absorbed. On the other hand, I’ve known a LOT of historians from that generation who are/were very supportive of the WW II generation soldiers, romanticize D-Day, etc., but who otherwise were big-time libs. They never seem to connect the anti-freedom of Hitler with the corruption and decay and anti-freedom of Clinton and Obama.
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