Forger's Shadow by Nick Groom

Forger's Shadow by Nick Groom

Whilst defining the very meaning of forgery, Nick Groom ranges from the economic forgery of the 18th century, where the forgery of a #100 banknote could mean death by hanging, to the formation of literary copyright which was established not in order to protect the nation's authors, but rather as a way of censoring them. At the centre of Groom's book are the figures of literary forgery that have haunted both our literature and our imaginations for years. There is Chatterton: the fatal model for the Romantic perceived as a mad, unrecognized, and suicidal genius but one whose supposedly tragic life was as much myth as the 15th century monk he invented. Or there is Macpherson: constantly at war with Samuel Johnson who edited (or wrote, or indeed forged) the lost epics of a third-century Celtic bard; there is the forger William Henry Ireland who not only wrote two new and disastrous Shakespeare plays but also forged a legal document to make sure he benefited from the royalties; and finally there is the famous Wainewright who was a supreme forger in practically every sphere whose effect on literature from Dickens to Wilde to the early 21st century cannot be underestimated.

Nick Groom is Senior Lecturer in Post-Mediaeval Literature at the University of Bristol. He took a double first in English at Oxford, worked unsuccessfully as a rock musician, wrote a doctoral thesis on eighteenth-century ballads and since then has published widely on literature, music and contemporary art in both academic and popular publications. He lives on Dartmoor and in North London.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780330374323
ISBN 10	033037432X
Title	Forger's Shadow
Author	Nick Groom
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Pan Macmillan
Year published	2002-04-12
Number of pages	352
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable