The Poet and the Murderer

Mr. Worrall discussed his book The Poet and the Murderer: A True Story of Literary Crime and the Art of Forgery, published by Dutton. The book tells the story of an Emily Dickinson poem that surfaced at a Sotheby’s auction in 1997 and later was revealed to be a forgery. The criminal who forged the poem, Mark Hoffman, was a rare books dealer who forged numerous other documents and was serving a prison sentence for murder by the time the fake was discovered. Mr. Lombardo joined Mr. Worrall during the presentation. He had arranged the initial purchase of the poem from Sotheby’s, and subsequently led the investigation into the origins of the poem. After the presentation the two men answered questions from members of the audience. close