The Poet and the Murderer: A True Story of Literary Crime and the Art of Forgery

Simon Worrall's The Poet and the Murderer has probably made a lot of people angry. In it the author dwells on the shaky foundations of the Mormon Church, whose founder, Joseph Smith, is revealed as a sex-crazed charlatan. He also writes about the near criminal practices of auction houses, particularly Sotheby's, which seems to have deliberately ignored evidence that the "new" poem by Emily Dickinson it was auctioning was in fact a forgery. But the rest of us, who are neither Mormons nor Sotheby's employees, can only delight in Worrall's fascinating book. The Poet and the Murderer tells the true-life story of Mark Hofmann, a disaffected Mormon with a genius for deception. Hofmann's forgeries--of Emily Dickinson, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Joseph Smith, Daniel Boone, and over a hundred other historical figures--were expertly produced, a feat that requires far more than the superficial replication of a subject's pen strokes. Hofmann used paper ripped from period books, manufactured his own ink, and wrote under self-hypnosis so that his forgeries would not be betrayed by evidence of hesitancy. Many of Hofmann's forgeries were intended to undermine the religion he had grown up to despise, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, by inserting into the historical record documents that were embarrassing to the Church. One could almost admire this man, who was so scrupulous in his work and so evidently intelligent--except that his crimes did not stop at forging. Worrall also devotes much of his book to a discussion of Emily Dickinson, the "poet" of the title, as one of Hofmann's more daring forgeries was a poem that he composed and passed off as one of her lost works. Her reclusiveness, sexuality, handwriting, potential incontinence, and bizarre family life are all discussed, as is the sale of the Dickinson poem by Sotheby's years after Hofmann's imprisonment for murder. But while Dickinson shares equal billing with Mark Hofmann in the title of Worrall's book, The Poet and the Murderer has more to do with the Mormon Church than it does with Amherst's famous recluse. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Nor is there very much wrong with this book. On a few occasions the author repeats himself. His narration in the Epilogue of a dream he'd had about Dickinson is perhaps a bit much. More importantly, when it comes, Hofmann's transformation from a brilliant and seemingly unassailable forger into a cash-strapped inventor of fraudulent investment schemes seems too abrupt. Why would Hofmann, who was otherwise so controlled, have adopted behavior almost certain to get him caught? Why, for example, did he accept nearly $200,000 as payment for documents he never intended to forge? Perhaps the answers to these questions were not forthcoming, and perhaps Hofmann's downfall was indeed thus abrupt. One thing Worrall does succeed at particularly is transforming Hofmann in the reader's mind from a relatively harmless, almost admirable white-collar c

I was fascinated by the story of THE POET AND THE MURDERER when I saw Simon Worrall interviewed by Brian Lamb on Booknotes, and I was enthralled when I read the book. It is a page-turner! Of particular interest to me was the attention that the forger, Hofmann, paid to getting the details exactly right--not just the chemistry of ink and paper, but the human chemistry as well. In creating a forgery, he asked, "What was this person's place in the world? What words would he or she have used?" Such meticulous research in the service of deceit! Another fascinating theme in the book is the interconnectedness of people, from the poet to the murderer and all the people in between.

I began reading THE POET AND THE MURDERER because I am a life-long admirer of Emily Dickinson. I finished the book because I couldn't put it down.Mr. Worrall has recounted a gripping tale about an incredible forgery and the lives and institutions that were changed forever by the crime. This is the story of the curator of Special Collections at the Jones Library in Amherst, MA,who, with some trepidation, paid $21,000 for an original manuscript of an Emily Dickinson poem. It is the story of a man of incredible talent and will who set out to fool the experts and the public, and discredit the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. It is about a respected auction house, shrugging their collective shoulders over deceit. It is about murder. Worrall spent three years unraveling the threads of poetry and provenance. He takes us from Amherst to Salt Lake City, from the Dickinson Homestead to the wealthy showrooms of Sotheby's to Utah State Correctional Facility. Along the way, he introduces Yale's Ralph Franklin, renowned expert on Emily Dickinson's handwriting; Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism; Mark Hoffman, dealer and forger; Daniel Lombardo, who refused to be conned; and even shy Emily, one of America's foremost poets. Worrall is an enthralling storyteller.. He educates us on the complexities of handwriting, the intrigues of art auctions, and the machinations of the upper echelons of the Mormon Church, all while avoiding pedantic preaching. Simon Worrall followed the story because he was intrigued by a person with the unquestionable ability to "clone" Emily Dickinson's unique style. After reading that the poem had been returned to Sotheby's by the Jones Library, Worrall was curious about the poem's real provenance.He has done his research. His comments and allusions show a grasp of his subjects. And his own enthusiasm shines through-part of what makes the book so interesting and readable, yet never sensationalized or colloquial.

Having read the book I highly recommend it to everyone, if I could give it 7 stars out of 5 I would. The way the two stories are interwoven is highly impressive and makes for fascinating reading. The research that has gone into the book is very substantial and ensures the book is gripping from start to finish. As somebody who knew very little about the worlds of literature and forgery, I found it extremely enlightening and enjoyable to read about them. However I feel it transcends them and is quite simply a brilliant, well written book.Due to the quality of the writing and the way in which the charcters were brought to life, I could empathise with the characters involved, (although it is an all too frequently used cliche), once I started the book I couldn't put it down. This book shocks and surprises the reader as only a true story can, it almost seems like a creation from Hollywood, perhaps we will see it adapted to the big screen soon, I for one hope so.Anyway, I will conclude by saying I recommend this book to everyone and anyone and look forward to more releases from this writer of undoubted quality.

I knew very little about Hoffmann before reading this book, or about Emily Dickinson. I was drawn to it by an interest in the processes of forgery. I read the book in one sitting. Once this writer had pulled me in, I was on for the whole ride. And what a rollercoaster! Worrall takes you in to all kind of unexpected territory: the inside workings of the antiquarian trade, the history and psychology of the Mormon religious belief, the known material on Dickinson herself. But he does it with all the exactness of a watchmaker taking the insides out of an old spring-driven pocket watch. You feel like you understand a complicated situation because he's taken the trouble to lay it all out for you. There's human warmth here too when he's writing about the 'good guys' in this story full of cynical chicanery.I thought the stuff about Hoffmann at his devilish work was wonderfully done....set up with great atmosphere, so you could really get a picture of how someone like that operates.This should be a movie!Really...it has all the earmarks of a good mystery-come-detective story, with the real life character Daniel Lombardo as our hero.I will look out for this name in future. He's definitely on my list of must-reads.