Eric Naiman unearths one of the most elaborate academic hoaxes in recent memory:
Chekhov wrote a story, “In the Ravine”, where the father of a counterfeiter begins to worry that every coin passing through his hands is a fake. A similar feeling might befall any researcher trying to keep track of this mutually supportive network of scholars and writers. As one writer collapses into another, anyone who has anything positive to say about Leo Bellingham, Michael Lindsay or A. D. Harvey falls under suspicion and has to be thoroughly investigated for evidence of a more robust existence.
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