Oregon Author Admits Six-Figure Memoir Is Fiction

GENERAL NEWS 

By Ethan Lindsey

Bend, OR  March 4, 2008 4:29 p.m.

As you've heard, Eugene resident Peggy Seltzer is in hot water today, following the revelation that she reinvented herself as a child gang member in South Central Los Angeles for a six-figure literary payday. As Ethan Lindsey reports, the literary fabrication will have some repercussions here in Seltzer's home state.

Seltzer attended the University of Oregon before signing a book deal that included  a $100,000 advance, according to the New York Times. She claims in "Love and Consequences" that  she graduated from the school's ethnic studies program, but the school says she did not receive a degree.

The New York Times this morning revealed the fraud. Seltzer's sister called the newspaper after recognizing her sister in a photo that accompanied an earlier profile of a "Peggy Jones," the pseudonym Peggy Seltzer used.

Dave Weich is the director of marketing for Powell's Books in Portland, where Seltzer was scheduled to read Tuesday night.

Dave Weich: “We did not cancel the event ourselves. The publisher actually called us and told us the author had a personal emergency and so they cancelled the event. We only found out afterwards what the real reason was.”

After the reason was publicly revealed, Riverhead, a division of Penguin Books, announced it's recalling all copies - and canceling the book tour.

In the New York Times profile about her life and her home, Seltzer, posing as Jones, describes Eugene as being a refuge from the dangerous gang-banging streets she grew up in.

Dave Weich: “I think it's a bit of black eye. Its kind of a minor league Tonya Harding, but we're certainly not alone in this. This isn't a situation that is exclusively Oregonian.”

Lauren Kessler is the director of the literary nonfiction program at the University of Oregon's school of journalism. She did not know the author.

But Kessler knows something about the issue -- she had organized a conference in Portland last year titled 'keeping the non in non-fiction.”

Lauren Kessler: “This is something much bigger and much more important than a local story. This is a national embarrassment. Think about how much money was invested, not just in the advance for the writer, which I am sure will have to come back. But many hundreds-of-thousands of dollars were spent on a book that is now being recalled.”

The University of Oregon's Ethnic Studies program declined to comment, except to say only one current faculty member taught Seltzer and that professor doesn't remember her well.

Kessler notes that just last week, a best-selling author who wrote a Holocaust survival memoir  admitted she made up her story - and in fact, she wasn't even Jewish.

The literary world is still reeling from the fallout a couple of years ago from James Frey and his exaggerated memoir 'A Million Little Pieces.'

But Weich, with Powell's Books, says the saddest part, for him, was that he wasn't surprised by the news.

Dave Weich: “The question that we all asked and that anyone really asks, is why isn't there more fact-checking going on. This particular case seems to be a good example where you wouldn't really need a sleuth. And I'm certainly not aware of any major changes institutionalized within the process of publishing to make this less likely.”

He says the previously-shamed James Frey has written a new novel that will be on bookshelves soon. And Weich expects not only that the book sell, but that when Frey comes to town, his reading will be sold out.

Dave Weich: “James Frey not only had the support of Oprah, but that book had been out and had been very well read and was on best-seller lists. That's the biggest difference. People are not going to have an emotional connection with this book because they hadn't read it.”

He says the difference in this case is that since 'Love & Consequences' wasn't a best-seller already, people will forget the author's name by next week.

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