Aggrieved
publisher rejects young novelist's apology
By DINITIA SMITH
New York Times
April 26, 2006
A day after Kaavya Viswanathan admitted copying parts of her chick-lit
novel, "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life," from
another writer's works, the publisher of the two books she borrowed
from called her apology "troubling and disingenuous."
On Monday, Ms. Viswanathan, in an e-mail message, said that her copying
from Megan McCafferty's "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings," both
young adult novels published by Crown, a division of Random House, had
been "unintentional and unconscious."
But in a statement issued today, Steve Ross, Crown's publisher, said
that, "based on the scope and character of the similarities, it is
inconceivable that this was a display of youthful innocence or an
unconscious or unintentional act."
He said that there were more than 40 passages in Ms. Viswanathan's book
"that contain identical language and/or common scene or dialogue
structure from Megan McCafferty's first two books."
Mr. Ross called it "nothing less than an act of literary identity
theft."
On Monday, Ms. Viswanathan and her publisher, Little, Brown, had said
that future printings of the novel would be revised to "eliminate any
inappropriate similarities" and that an acknowledgment to Ms.
McCafferty would be added.
But Mr. Ross, in an interview, questioned how quickly that could be
accomplished. The planned revisions, he said, would take several
months, and "during those intervening months this original edition
would still be in bookstores. That's one of the issues that is of great
concern to us." Ms. McCafferty has a new book, "Charmed Thirds," in
stores now, and Mr. Ross called the incident "an enormous distraction
and disruption."
Mr. Ross added that Crown had not ruled out legal action. "Right now
this is in the hands of our lawyers," he said. "We're waiting to see
what their recommendations are."
Ms. McCafferty's agent, Joanna Pulcini, also reacted to Ms.
Viswanathan's apology. "It is understandably difficult for us to accept
that Ms. Viswanathan's plagiarism was 'unintentional and unconscious,'
as she has claimed," she said in a statement.
Michael Pietsch, publisher of Little, Brown, said in response to Mr.
Ross's statement, that the company was looking forward to "a speedy and
amicable" solution. He added, however, he had not yet seen the 40
similarities that Mr. Ross has said existed between the books. "We look
forward to hearing from the author and from Random House and to
resolving this."
The Harvard Crimson first reported the plagiarism charges on Saturday.
Meanwhile Harvard would not say what, if any, disciplinary action it
might take against Ms. Viswanathan. Robert Mitchell, the director of
communications for Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said in an
interview, "We would not discuss any individual situation that might or
might not come before the administrative board."