Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A STAFF WRITER for The New Yorker magazine has resigned and his best-selling book has been halted after he admitted to inventing quotes by Bob Dylan.
Jonah Lehrer has released a statement through his publisher, saying that some Dylan quotes appearing in Imagine: How Creativity Works did “not exist.”
Others were “unintentional misquotations, or represented improper combinations of previously existing quotes”.
Tablet Magazine uncovered Lehrer’s actions. In an in-depth story released yesterday, writer Michael Moynihan of Tablet examined the Dylan quotes from Imagine: How Creativity Works.
Moynihan said that some of the quotes in the book “confounded” him and said that when questioned Lehrer:
… stonewalled, misled and eventually outright lied to me.
Lehrer eventually confessed to never having met Bob Dylan’s manager Jeff Rosen. He had previously said that it was Rosed who provided him with unreleased interview footage of the singer, and that this was where the quotes on creativity had come from.
In a statement released yesterday Lehrer said:
I told Mr. Moynihan that [the quotes in question] were from archival interview footage provided to me by Dylan’s representatives. This was a lie spoken in a moment of panic. When Mr. Moynihan followed up, I continued to lie, and say things I should not have said.
The lies are over now. I understand the gravity of my position. I want to apologize to everyone I have let down, especially my editors and readers.
Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt said in a statement that Lehrer had committed a “serious misuse.”
Listings for the e-book edition of Imagine will be removed and shipments of the physical book have been stopped.
Imagine, published in March, has sold more than 200,000 copies, according to Houghton Mifflin. It has spent 16 weeks on The New York Times’ hardcover nonfiction bestseller list and yesterday had ranked No. 105 on Amazon.com.
Lehrer had already gotten himself into hot water last month after it emerged that he had recycled some work that he had written for previous publications.
New Yorker editor David Remnick has said that he has accepted Lehrer’s resignation, and that it was a terrifically sad situation, but, in the end, what is most important is the integrity of what we publish and what we stand for”.
Among Lehrer’s inventions was a quote that first appeared in the famous documentary from the mid-1960s, “Don’t Look Back,” in which Dylan tells a reporter about his songs that “I just write them. There’s no great message”.
In Imagine, Lehrer adds a third sentence — “Stop asking me to explain” — that does not appear in the film.
According to Tablet, Lehrer also invented quotes on how Dylan wrote Like a Rolling Stone and, when confronted about them, alleged that he had been granted access to an uncut version of No Direction Home, a Dylan documentary made by Martin Scorsese. Lehrer now says he never saw such footage.
Plagiarism and fabrication
Last year a columnist for the Irish Examiner was investigated following allegations of plagiarism, while Independent columnist Johann Hari was suspended from the paper after his work was questioned.
In 2003 a New York Times reporter Jayson Blair was found to have fabricated stories and had lifted information from other publications without attribution. The Guardian reported at the time that all 673 of Blair’s stories were retrospectively fact-checked by the paper.
Over the past decade, numerous books have been pulled, whether because of lifting material from other sources (Q.R. Markham’s Assassin of Secrets) or fabricating events (James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces).
- Additional reporting by the Associated Press
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
A pity he doesn’t sort out the chaotic mess that’s CUH in his own backyard, instead of traveling to northern Ireland
@K O: As Minister of Foreign Affairs travel such as this is a requirement of the job. There may be things to whine about in relation to Micheal Martin but complaining that he is doing his job is a new one.
Cant make it up, these lads continually slate sinn fein.
Yet they are happy to sit with them concerning the north. You can’t have stormont restoration
Without them. Bet he doesnt shout down michelle when others are watching. It’s all hand shakes and smiles.
Yet people believe his rhetoric.
@Colette Byrne: It is valid to differ with SF regarding its iffy economic policies while working alongside it towards a peaceful united Ireland.
@Colette Byrne: SF are Nationalists much like UKIP and so on. I go with Einstein’s opinion on Nationalists.
Hope they don’t use the bike shed contractors for this 1….
@Padraig Devaney: what about the electrion voting machine’s?
Between purchase and storage cost the taxpayer €54 million,then they were sold for NINE EUROS PER UNIT .
He an international high flyer, opinions on everything and no solution.
FF has made persistent effort and input into stable relationships with all who live on the island of Ireland.
@thomas molloy: FF the party of great relationships for sure, literally jumped into bed with bankers and developers and took this country to the brink in 2006 and then denied we ever bailed out said banks?
@thomas molloy: Let’s hope that we will have intelligent comment and discussion on the matter at hand rather than immature electioneering bl bl bla
@thomas molloy: you’re joking Right ?
@jak: The minute you mention your rear end Martin you are losing the argument.
@jak: It’s what you are talking through.
@Tom Newell:
Shin Fein voted on that night with the goverkment to Bale out the Bankers
Only Labour vote no to the Bale out.
“With the return of the institutions in Northern Ireland, and a renewed commitment to partnership from the British government, this is hugely important occasion to reflect on how far we have come and to drive forward the important work ahead.”
How can this important work be turned into petty electioneering bitchingg by anyone.
@thomas molloy: Can’t the so called “opposition PR departments” not see that petty electioneering is loosing the votes big time.
@thomas molloy: Will he mention, you know, the thing that he and his party dare not mention? Because we’ve had over 100 years of FF and FG saying it’s not the right time? Because we don’t want to upset the unionists? It’s time we created a new Ireland for everyone.
@Anthony Curran: The crux of the matter is that ‘we’ means different things to different people. Your concept of ‘we’ may not be the same as someone else’s.
@thomas molloy: how can you support a man who stood over one of the biggest scandals in this country, organ retention.
They stole from man, woman, and child. He stands in the dail, shouting and making slurs at sinn fein constantly, and other members of his party.
Yet you are saying what a great leader he is. Mary lou is the leader of the very party he is now going to pick the boots of.
Twofaced comes to mind.
No, he is not electionteering at all.
@Colette Byrne: lick
@Colette Byrne: How can you promote a party that is the political wing of an organisation that within living memory blew men, women and children to smithereens. I suppose that is excusable because it was all for the “cause”.
@Vincent Alexander: Did your parents or grandparents vote for the civil war parties of FF and FG, parties who murdered men, women and children?
@thomas molloy: That ship sailed a while ago!
@Vincent Alexander: The British government shot innocent people on the streets (bloody Sunday), and colluded with killers to murder people suspected of crimes. Are you suggesting that nobody talks to the British government?
@Anthony Curran:
See good Friday agreement for details.
@H Woo: Is that what your bot manual says?
A shyster who couldn’t tell the truth, even if his life depended on it!
He will yeah
@Brian Hunt. I presume you are referring to the Tainiste. I worked with Hillary in the UK and found him to be basically sound!
@Padraig O’Brien: No, I meant Mehole. Don’t know much about Hillary, but his father Tony Benn was much in the news. Didn’t like his politics much but he came across as a man of decency and integrity!
@Brian Hunt:
The great socialist who used expert financel advice to minimise inheritance taxes on the transfer of his wealth to his children.
@H Woo: That’s not a hanging offence, you’d probably do the same for your children!
have your say