They made such a big deal about it in college, telling us students to never do it, the most serious charge.
Then how come nothing ever happened to Ms. Goodwin?
Proves that this society is about WHO you know and WHAT CLASS you are in.
Goodwin still invited as an expert on all the pundit shows!
So it is O.K. to cheat -- sometimes?
"Student novelist's book to be recalled; Many similarities to another's work" by David Mehegan, Globe Staff | April 28, 2006
In an extraordinary turn of events, publisher Little, Brown & Co. last night announced it would withdraw all unsold copies of a Harvard sophomore's first novel from bookstores, days after 19-year-old Kaavya Viswanathan admitted she had borrowed portions of text from another writer's books.
The publisher, which had signed Viswanathan when she was 17 to a reported $500,000 contract for ''How Opal Mehta got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" and a second book, said it had notified suppliers to stop selling the book and return copies to the publisher.
Little, Brown & Co.'s publisher, Michael Pietsch, said in a statement that booksellers would receive ''full credit" for returned copies.
The withdrawal of a book in stores is not unprecedented, but what makes this case so remarkable is the size of the novel's first printing -- believed to be 100,000 copies -- and it hit stores on April 4, making the recall one of the largest and swiftest in publishing history.
According to the Los Angeles Times, about 50,000 copies had been delivered to stores as of yesterday.
''It's very unusual, though not unheard of," Boston literary agent Jill Kneerim said last night. ''What is unusual is the series of events, and the deception, that led to the withdrawal."
In 1999, St. Martin's Press pulled 90,000 copies of ''Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President," which alleged that the future president had been arrested once for cocaine use.
The book was yanked from shelves when author J. H. Hatfield's veracity was discredited.
Allegations of plagiarism have resulted in other books being withdrawn, including Doris Kearns Goodwin's ''The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys."
In that case, the paperback version of the 1987 bestseller was withdrawn from stores in 2002, and changes were made before being offered again.
But NO CONSEQUENCES for the "respected" Doris Kearns, huh?
It was unclear what would happen to the unsold copies of ''Opal Mehta," but it is likely they would be destroyed. The book was ranked No. 68 on Amazon.com earlier this week.
After allegations appeared Sunday on the Harvard Crimson's web edition that Viswanathan apparently used numerous sections from novelist Megan McCafferty's ''Sloppy Firsts" and ''Second Helpings," in some cases with near-verbatim sentences, Viswanathan acknowledged the similarities, but maintained that her actions were ''unintentional and unconscious."
''When I sat down to write my novel, my only intention was to tell the story of Opal," she said in an interview on NBC's Today program on Wednesday, repeating the defense and apology she made in an earlier statement. ''I was so surprised and horrified when I found these similarities."
On the show, she explained that ''as I was writing, I genuinely believed that every single word I was writing was my own."
She and Little, Brown & Co. pledged to revise the book in future printings, but Random House, the parent of Crown, McCafferty's publisher, denounced her explanations on Tuesday and rejected the pledge, calling the Viswanathan book ''literary identity theft."
In its announcement last night, Little, Brown & Co. did not withdraw its intention to revise the book.
In response to the announced withdrawal of the books, Crown said in a statement last night, ''We are pleased that this matter has been resolved in an appropriate and timely fashion."
In a separate statement, Megan McCafferty said, ''In the case of Kaavya Viswanathan's plagiarizing of my novels 'Sloppy Firsts' and 'Second Helpings' . . . I am not seeking restitution in any form. The past few weeks have been very difficult, and I am most grateful to my readers for offering continual support . . . . I look forward to getting back to work and moving on."
McCafferty said she hoped the same for Viswanathan.
McCafferty's new novel, ''Charmed Thirds," was released about the same time as ''Opal Mehta" and is No. 19 on the New York Times bestseller list.
Viswanathan's novel first received attention in the late winter, partly because of the size of the contract for a writer so young, but also for the role that a book packager had played in developing the plot.
Alloy Entertainment, which shares the copyright for ''Opal Mehta," said it helped the author conceptualize the book, but did not assist in its writing.
On Monday, Pietsch insisted to the Globe, ''Kaavya wrote every word of the book."
Alloy, Little, Brown, & Co., and the William Morris Agency, Viswanathan's agent, all declined this week to spell out the financial and business arrangements surrounding the book, but most specialists in publishing have said that to share the copyright, Alloy must have had a major part in the book's creation.
Kneerim suggested blame for the debacle rests mainly with the business parties to the deal.
''How could any person at 17 have any real judgment about this?" she asked. ''We live in a world and culture in which success is so insanely inflated, and greed is at the heart of it."
Alloy has produced numerous bestselling novels for teens, including the ''Sweet Valley High" series, ''Gossip Girl," and ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants."
In most cases, Alloy totally controlled the creative process, sometimes even hiring a writer after a plot was formed.
''How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" tells the story of an Indian-born only child much like Viswanathan: raised in New Jersey by affluent parents.
In the novel, the girl's parents devise an obsessive plan to prepare her to get into Harvard.
Viswanathan received the contract one month after she arrived at Harvard, although she had not finished the book.
She wrote it in the school year, and told the Globe in January that at one point she was writing 50 pages a week.
Viswanathan has refused many Globe requests for an interview this week.
Amanda Darling, marketing manager for the Harvard Book Store, an independent bookseller in Harvard Square, said that interest in ''Opal Mehta" was high this week.
''There was a lot of sympathy for her; people felt she was under a lot of pressure to be the next chick-lit goddess," Darling said.
Darling said their buyer had not received notification from Little, Brown & Co. about the withdrawal, but she said the store would ''comply with the wishes of the publisher."
Viswanathan's fall is stunning, but not necessarily fatal.
In 1980, debut author Jacob Epstein acknowledged plagiarizing Martin Amis's ''The Rachel Papers" for his novel ''Wild Oats."
Epstein moved on to Hollywood and was forgiven quickly. His writing credits including ''Hill Street Blues" and ''L.A. Law."
Pffffttt!
I earned my A's, and look how far it got me.
What did my parents raise me on honesty and truth for, readers?
No wonder I'm just a poor blogger going bankrupt!
