15 November 2011
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QR Markham confesses his reasons for plagiarism
Q.R. Markham, whose spy novel Assassin of Secrets was withdrawn from publication last week, has explained why he resorted to plagiarism ...
Q.R. Markham, whose spy novel Assassin of Secrets was withdrawn from publication last week, has explained why he resorted to plagiarism
QR Markham is the pseudonym of Quentin Rowan, a New York poet and bookseller. His book was withdrawn from bookshelves in the US last week by publisher Little, Brown after it was discovered that it contained pages of passages that had been lifted from other works, including James Bond novels by James Gardner, and works by Robert Ludlum. In the UK, publisher Hodder & Stoughton pulled the novel last Wednesday, the day before it was due to be published.
A single copy of the UK edition is currently posted on Amazon, priced £300.
Rowan confessed his reasons for plagiarism in an email to novelist Jeremy Duns, who has published his correspondence with Rowan on his blog.
It includes the passage: 'It started out as something fun and just for me. A much sillier, more parodic kind of thing.( I should state that it was initially inspired by my long-time love and study of the genre, not any kind of contempt for it.) Then I decided maybe I could do something with it. But the minute I got an agent and started showing it to people who suggested changes, I began to distrust the quality of whatever real work I'd done on it. So I started ripping off passages from spy novels in my collection that fit. Somehow public scrutiny has always been the pressure point for me. Once I feel I'm doing the work for someone else's eyes, I begin stealing, because I want to impress.
Once the book was bought, I had to make major changes in quite a hurry, basically re-write the whole thing from scratch, and that's when things really got out of hand for me. I just didn't feel capable of writing the kinds of scenes and situations that were asked of me in the time allotted and rather than saying I couldn't do it, or wasn't capable, I started stealing again.'
You can read the full correspondence at: http://jeremyduns.blogspot.com/2011/11/highway-robbery-mask-of-knowing-in.html?showComment=1321259953379#c563057237791226662
QR Markham is the pseudonym of Quentin Rowan, a New York poet and bookseller. His book was withdrawn from bookshelves in the US last week by publisher Little, Brown after it was discovered that it contained pages of passages that had been lifted from other works, including James Bond novels by James Gardner, and works by Robert Ludlum. In the UK, publisher Hodder & Stoughton pulled the novel last Wednesday, the day before it was due to be published.
A single copy of the UK edition is currently posted on Amazon, priced £300.
Rowan confessed his reasons for plagiarism in an email to novelist Jeremy Duns, who has published his correspondence with Rowan on his blog.
It includes the passage: 'It started out as something fun and just for me. A much sillier, more parodic kind of thing.( I should state that it was initially inspired by my long-time love and study of the genre, not any kind of contempt for it.) Then I decided maybe I could do something with it. But the minute I got an agent and started showing it to people who suggested changes, I began to distrust the quality of whatever real work I'd done on it. So I started ripping off passages from spy novels in my collection that fit. Somehow public scrutiny has always been the pressure point for me. Once I feel I'm doing the work for someone else's eyes, I begin stealing, because I want to impress.
Once the book was bought, I had to make major changes in quite a hurry, basically re-write the whole thing from scratch, and that's when things really got out of hand for me. I just didn't feel capable of writing the kinds of scenes and situations that were asked of me in the time allotted and rather than saying I couldn't do it, or wasn't capable, I started stealing again.'
You can read the full correspondence at: http://jeremyduns.blogspot.com/2011/11/highway-robbery-mask-of-knowing-in.html?showComment=1321259953379#c563057237791226662
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