How Opal Mehta Got the Boot

Publisher Little, Brown & Company did the right thing by yanking all copies of How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life from bookshelves last week as the plagiarism charges against author Kaavya Viswanathan escalated.

Viswanathan was accused of lifting passages from the work of Megan McCafferty to produce her own novel, which was part of a $500,000 deal with Little, Brown. The book, a "chick lit" tale for teens, rose quickly on sales lists after the plagiarism charges surfaced last week.

Viswanathan's transgressions, if that is what they prove to be, are nothing new in the literary world. While fiction writers have contributed their fair share to the ranks of plagiarists, some non-fiction writers have caused more of a stir, particularly among the ranks of academics. Some noteworthy alleged plagiarists:

• Most recently, William H. Swanson - Raytheon CEO and author of Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management, said to be ripped off from The Unwritten Laws of Engineering by W.J. King.
• Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose book The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys was said to contain passages from another book. Goodwin settled a lawsuit with the author but steadfastly denies that she plagiarized anything.
• Stephen Ambrose, a highly acclaimed historian, was accused of blatant plagiarism. There were numerous instances but they were not discovered until 2002, late in his career. Ambrose died soon after.
• Journalist Jason Blair of the New York Times, who sent that journalistic icon into a tailspin with a whole litany of plagiaristic stories that found their way into print.
• H.G. Wells was accused, in the 1920s, of plagiarizing a Canadian woman named Florence Deeks in his famous Outline of History. Deeks was subsequently ridiculed and her story discounted but more recent scholars have given some credence to her account.

For the lowdown on other famous plagiarists, check out the website of Dr. John P. Lesko, a self-proclaimed "plagiarologist" at www.famousplagiarists.com. Lesko outlines allegations of plagiarism regarding a wide range of authors and political notables - including Senator Joe Biden, Al Gore, Martin Luther King, Jr., and even Osama Bin Laden.

Lesko is also producing a new online scholarly journal called, you guessed it, Plagiary. This looks to be a serious effort and the description says it will examine "cross disciplinary studies in plagiarism, fabrication, and falsification". The website is still in the works but worth a look at www.plagiary.org.