Posted by:
Exmogal
(
)
Date: September 28, 2011 07:13AM
Remember the 1970s novel about drugs, Go Ask Alice?
I remember reading it but had no idea the author was Mormon. Nor that she (a psychologist from Provo) claimed it was a real diary, that she had merely edited...
See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Ask_AliceWikipedia says about it:
Go Ask Alice was originally promoted as nonfiction and was published under the byline "Anonymous."
However, not long after its publication, Beatrice Sparks, a psychologist and Mormon youth counselor, began making media appearances presenting herself as the book's editor.
Searches at the U.S. Copyright Office show that Sparks is the sole copyright holder for Go Ask Alice. Furthermore, she is listed on the copyright record as the book'sauthor — not as the editor, compiler, or executor, which would be more usual for someone publishing the diary of a deceased person. (According to the book itself, the sole copyright is owned by Prentice-Hall.)
I suppose it could have been a fabrication of Sparks' or could have been a mix of fabrication and truth. I don't think that with today's book publishing standards, one could get away with that. Or could they?