Worrall, Simon

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WORRALL, Simon

PERSONAL: Born in England. Education: Bristol University.

ADDRESSES: Home—East Hampton, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Penguin Group USA, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014.

CAREER: Journalist. Began career in England working with Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Court theatre as a dramaturge.

WRITINGS:

The Poet and the Murderer: A True Story of Literary Crime and the Art of Forgery, Dutton (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to periodicals, including Sunday Review, New Yorker, Paris Review, Times Weekend Review, London Review, Die Ziet, Esquire, Harper's, National Geographic, Independent, New Republic, and New Yorker.

SIDELIGHTS: In The Poet and the Murderer: A True Story of Literary Crime and the Art of Forgery journalist Simon Worrall tells the true story of forger-turned-murderer Mark Hofmann. As told by Worrall, Hofmann was raised in a devout Mormon family and went to England at the age of nineteen as a missionary for the church. However, it is soon revealed that Hofmann harbors deep hostilities toward the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In an effort to mock and embarrass the Morman church, Hofmann, who deals in rare books, begins to forge documents concerning the church's founding and beliefs. Embarrassed by these documents, which they believe are real, church leaders ultimately buy them all from Hofmann. Buoyed by his success with Mormon leaders, Hofmann develops an increasing hubris that results in his continued forgery of documents, not only those supposedly originating from early Mormon leaders but also documents by such notable Americans as George Washington, Paul Revere, and Abraham Lincoln. He eventually produces a newly discovered poem by Emily Dickinson that sold for approximately 21,000 dollars at auction. Supremely confident of his abilities to forge documents and make money, Hofmann spent lavishly and went deeply into debt. When he was pursued by creditors, he hatched a plan that involved bombings and murder and ultimately killed two people in the historic document field. He was captured when a bomb explodes in his own car and police discover ed his criminal activities while investigating the bombing. The explosion could have been an accident, a suicide attempt, or an attempt by Hofmann to set himself up as a potential victim and divert growing suspicion away from his forgery activities. In the end, his illegal activities are completely exposed, and he is sentenced to prison.

Lloyd Rose, reviewing The Poet and the Murderer in the Washington Post, commented, "The book is weighed down periodically by Worrall's efforts to invest his entertaining detective story with deeper meaning," and is "handicapped by an overemphatic prose style." Nevertheless, the reviewer added, "if Worrall is a lead-footed stylist, he's a keen, hard-working investigator, and the story he tells is fascinating." Writing in the Emily Dickinson Journal, Ellen Louise Hart commented that The Poet and the Murderer "is riddled with error" concerning Dickinson and her works, and argued that Worrall is misguided in his efforts to compare Dickinson to Hofmann by "claiming they both lived secret double lives." The reviewer added: "In trying to appeal to a range of audiences Worrall's narrative becomes an awkward mesh of investigative journalism and selective details from other studies and biographies, presented through fictionalizing and simplification." "Yet," Hart also noted, "this slippery book remains worthy of our attention for two reasons: it contributes new information to the Hofmann case, and the event of the forgery has a place in Dickinson Studies."

Other reviewers consistently praised the book. A Publishers Weekly contributor called The Poet and the Murderer a "compelling debut," while Jamie Spencer, writing in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, commented: "Worrall is not just a good story-spinner and not just a crackerjack researcher. Best of all, he makes incisive judgments." In a review for the Library Journal, Clay Stalls wrote that "Worrall's book stands as an entertaining addition to the corpus of work on Mark Hofmann." Booklist contributor Connie Fletcher viewed The Poet and the Murderer as "a compelling case study of forgery" and called it "[a] true-crime standout."