THE MT VOID
10/28/22 -- Vol. 41, No. 18, Whole Number 2247

Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in November (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
GATTACA (letter of comment by Gary McGath)
This Week's Reading (SALAMANDER, THE MORMON MURDERS,
A GATHERING OF SAINTS, VICTIMS, and THE POET AND
THE MURDERER) (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

===================================================================

TOPIC: Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)

Meetings are still fluctuating between in-person and Zoom. The
best way to get the latest information is to be on the mailing
lists for them.

November 3, 2022 (MTPL), 5:30PM: NOSFERATU (1922) & DRACULA
by Bram Stoker
November 17, 2022 (OBPL), 7:00PM: NEPTUNE'S BROOD by Charles Stross
(note this is the *third* Thursday because of Thanksgiving)
December 1, 2022 (MTPL), 5:30PM: THE QUATERMASS CONCLUSION (1979):
Nigel Kneale
January 5, 2023 (MTPL), 5:30PM: "To Serve Man" by Damon Knight and
"Twilight Zone" episode thereof

===================================================================

TOPIC: My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in November (comments by
Mark R. Leeper)

Though the producers of BIGGER THAN LIFE appear to have wanted to
keep this fact unknown, this film was based on a true medical case
history. It is a film adaptation of a New Yorker story. The film
stars (James Mason) as a mild introverted grade school teacher with
heart problems who agrees to try a newly discovered cardio drug.
Unexpectedly this turns him from a mild teacher to a Hyde-like
tyrant. The original story was described by film reviewer Richard
Brody in a 2012 review (also in the New Yorker) as follows:

"Nicholas Ray’s furious, agonized 1956 melodrama BIGGER THAN LIFE
... is based on a non-fiction article by Berton Roueche that
appeared in The New Yorker the year before [in the September 10,
1955, issue]. Entitled "Ten Feet Tall" (a line that turns up in
the movie), the report ..., like the movie, concerns a
schoolteacher who is afflicted with the rare and hitherto rapidly
fatal disease periarteritis nodosa and is treated with a new
medicine called cortisone (Roueche's subject also receives a
hormone called ACTH) which saves his life (indeed, brings about
rapid improvement, enabling him to return to his work and his
family) but causes psychological disturbances."

[BIGGER THAN LIFE, Thursday, November 10, 8:00PM]

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TOPIC: GATTACA (letter of comment by Gary McGath)

In response to Mark's comments on GATTACA in the 10/21/22 issue of
the MT VOID, Gary McGath writes:

[Mark writes,] "One wonders how so inaccurate a test could be
accepted without question by a society, particularly after [an] age
of civil rights and civil liberties advances."

I loved the movie and don't find it difficult to believe that a
future society would find new things to fetishize. The society
portrayed there didn't strike me as particularly strong on civil
liberties. It appeared very conformist. [-gmg]

===================================================================

TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

I am fascinated by forgeries and hoaxes. Many have made their way
into movies; for example, HOAX (a narrative film about the Howard
Hughes autobiography hoax), and TIM'S VERMEER (a documentary about
copying a Vermeer).

One of the most documented forgery cases, involving hundreds of
forgeries, was that of Mark Hofmann. Hofmann forged hundreds of
signatures of historical personages such as Abraham Lincoln,
Daniel Boone, Mark Twain, and Jack London. But his true
masterpieces were (supposed) early Mormon documents such as the
"Anthon Transcript", the "Salamander Letter" and the "Joseph Smith
III Blessing"; a (supposed) first printing of "The Oath of a
Freeman"; and a (supposed) previously undiscovered poem by Emily
Dickinson. Hofmann also got money promising documents that he did
not have or that did not even exist. But this was more than just
forgery and deception. To cover his tracks, Hofmann killed two
people (an almost killed himself when he accidentally set off his
third bomb.

This is also one of the most written-about cases. Hofmann pled
guilty on 7 January 1987. By 1988, there were already *three*
books published about the case. I have read two of these books on
the subject, and two others, and there are probably more.

SALAMANDER: THE STORY OF THE MORMON FORGERY MURDERS by Linda
Sillitoe and Allen Roberts (31 May 1988, Signature Books, ISBN 978-0-941-21465-0) was first out of the gate (I believe). It was
also the first I read. At 570 pages, including an index, it is
probably also the most complete.

THE MORMON MURDERS: A TRUE STORY OF GREED, FORGERY, DECEIT, AND
DEATH by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith (30 June 1988,
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 978-1-555-84064-8) is the one book I know of
on the subject that I have not read.

A GATHERING OF SAINTS: A TRUE STORY OF MURDER, MONEY AND DECEIT by
Robert Lindsey (15 September 1988. Simon and Schuster, ISBN
978-0-671-65112-1) is 400 pages, including an index. It covers
pretty much the same ground as SALAMANDER, but not in the same
level of detail.

VICTIMS: THE LDS CHURCH AND THE MARK HOFMANN CASE by Richard E.
Turley, Jr., (1992, University of Illinois Press, ISBN
978-0-252-01885-5), not surprisingly, focuses less on Hofmann and
more on the victims, in specific the LDS Church and various
Mormons. The result is that little is said about other victims who
purchased forged autographs of non-Mormon historical figures, or
the Emily Dickinson poem. ("The Oath of a Freeman" is covered, but
probably only because it was so central to the entire series of
fraud.) Hofmann is really just a background figure. Parts of the
story are told from the points of views of various victims, but
none of Hofmann's activities are from his point of view. That is,
Turley may say something like, "Jones became concerned about the
loan," but he doesn't say, "Hofmann became concerned about the
loan." The closest is having someone say, "When I talked to him,
Hofmann seemed concerned about the loan." The closest he comes to
getting inside Hofmann's head are the transcripts of the interviews
with Hofmann, and it's known that not everything Hofmann said was
the truth.

Turley is a Mormon, and in his introduction he says that while he
is the managing director of the Historical Department of the LDS
Church, and while there is a process for getting official approval
for publications, Turley purposely did not put his book through
that process. While he understandably wants to make his Church and
its elders appear honest and virtuous, and describes a lot of the
dealings that seemed questionable on the part of Church officials
as being merely misunderstood, he does on the whole seem to have
been honest in his narration. (It is difficult to judge, of
course, because a lot of what he relies on are documents and
conversations that other authors did not have access to, and the
book as a whole can be read as a response to the two earlier
books.) Sillitoe, Roberts, and Turley are all journalists, and
Turley is not, which makes this an interesting contrast to the
other books. Perhaps as befits his status as a historian, Turley
has 160 pages of appendices, notes, and index in a 517-page book.

THE POET AND THE MURDERER: A TRUE STORY OF VERSE, VIOLENCE AND THE
ART OF FORGERY by Simon Worrall (2002, Fourth Estate, ISBN
978-1-841-15586-9), while covering all of Hofmann's "career", has
far more information about the Emily Dickinson forgery, with a lot
of background information about the Jones Library's acquisition of
the forgery and subsequent events involving it. In fact at least
80 of the 270 pages are dedicated to this one item. (It could be
more--this book has no index.) Another large part is devoted to
describing famous forgers and their techniques. Hofmann in some
sense merely provided the inspiration for a book more about
Dickinson on the one hand, and "the art of forgery" on the other.
But for readers interested in Emily Dickinson, this will obviously
have more appeal.

[All publication information is for the hardcover printing; many of
these are now available in paperback and ebook formats as well.]

[-ecl]

===================================================================

Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net


Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said,
"Never take candy from strangers." And then they dressed
me up and said, "Go beg for it." I didn't know what to
do! I'd knock on people's doors and go, "Trick or
treat." "No thank you."
--Rita Rudner

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