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Title: The Spinster and the Prophet: H.G. Wells, Florence Deeks, and the Case of the Plagiarized Text by A. B. McKillop ISBN: 1-56858-236-6 Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows Pub. Date: September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Palimpsest with a difference
Comment: H.G.Wells' Outline of History rings more than one bell from some forgotten toddler era of one's paidaia and it comes as a shock to discover this complot behind the original bestseller, and still for many in small town public libraries their intro to world history. It is therefore significant to have record set straight. The author revives the nearly misplaced story of Florence Deeks and her manuscript's fate at the hands of her publishers and presents the convincing case for Wells' use of the text as an 'outline' prefab and accelerant for his otherwise unaccountable haste in producing his very long work. There is a curious sort of last judgment at least--the facts of the case resurface to expose the deed to history and memory. Well done sherlocking.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Forgotten Struggle For Literary And Moral Justice
Comment: Although largely forgotten today, H.G. Wells' "Outline of History" was one of the great bestsellers of the post-World War I era. Readers by the thousands eagerly consumed this work, a tale of humankind from the prehistoric era to the present day. Although Wells was a well-established literary figure, he had made his repoutation as a popular novelist; the appearance of the "Outline" would be somewhat akin to a similar work appearing under the signature of Tom Clancy or Stephen King today.
Florence Deeks, meanwhile, was a Canadian woman of no literary reputation or fame. But a few years earlier, she had set for herself the ambitious task of writing a history of humankind, with an emphasis on the contributions of women. She submitted her manuscript for publication, and was surprised to receive it back, rejected, only after an eight-month interval. Even more puzzling was the condition of the document--dogeared, soiled, generally well worn.
For Deeks, at least, the mystery was solved when she read a review, which led her to purchase a copy of "The Outline of History." It immediately became clear to her that Wells had based his work on hers. Not only was the general structure virtually the same, whole passages were lifted verbatim.
The bulk of this well-researched, well-written book is the saga of Deeks' unsucessful, decade-long struggle for justice in the legal system of Canada and the U.K. It becomes sadly, abundantly clear, that the authorities never considered her plagarism suit on its obvious merits. As is so often the case, reputation triumphed over the right.
A.B. McKillop has taken a now obscure literary and legal episode and brought it vividly to life again in this outstanding work. McKillop's sympathies are clearly (and correctly) with Deeks, who struggled so long for justice against overwhelming odds. Her telling of the tale is so compelling that the reader is swept up in a sense of outrage, and even though the outcome is foreordained, a wish that somehow things could turn out differently in the end. Sadly, the only true vindication for Deeks is in the pages of this book. But at least posterity will know the true story.--William C. Hall
Rating: 5
Summary: Unknown woman author fights for her rights
Comment: This book is foremost a look at the position of women in Canada (and the UK) in the literary and legal worlds. It is also very well written, with interesting information about H.G. Wells' personal life, his attitude toward women (including his long suffering wife and Rebecca West), his sense of self-importance and his scorn for
"unimportant" writers.
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Title: The Modern American Presidency by Lewis L. Gould, Richard Norton Smith ISBN: 0700612521 Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Galileo's Finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science by P. W. Atkins ISBN: 0198606648 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn by DIANE RAVITCH ISBN: 0375414827 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Enterprising Women: 250 Years of American Business by Virginia G. Drachman ISBN: 0807827622 Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press Pub. Date: 21 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Encounters with the Founding Fathers by Henry Louis Gates Jr. ISBN: 0465027296 Publisher: BasicCivitas Books Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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