"Last train from Hiroshima" pulled due to fraud
Mon, Mar 1 2010 01:27 PM
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One again, a book with a political agenda turns out to be a canard.
Remember the Bellesiles book that claimed early Americans didn't own firearms? It too was full of blatant fabrications, and its author was stripped of the Bancroft Prize and given the boot from the college where he taught.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_A._Bellesiles
Holt to Cease Publication of 'Last Train to Hiroshima'
Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 3/1/2010 12:58:17 PM
After Charles Pellegrino, author of Last Train to Hiroshima, became embroiled in a dust-up over being deceived by a source for his book about the immediate aftermath of the bombing of the Japanese city, publisher Henry Holt has decided to go with the drastic move of ceasing publication of the title. The Macmillan imprint announced last week that it would make corrections to future editions of the book but now, after questions have surfaced about the validity of other accounts Pellegrino sourced in the book, Holt has decided to shelve the title entirely. In a statement issued today Holt said that while Pellegrino "fully admitted his mistake" and went about immediately fixing it, in the wake of the initial discovery "questions about other sources and the author's credentials arose." Holt went on to say: "The author of any work of non-fiction must stand behind its content. We must rely on our authors to answer questions that may arise as to the accuracy of their work and reliability of their sources. Unfortunately Mr. Pellegrino was not able to answer the additional questions that have arisen about his book to our satisfaction." A Holt spokesperson said that following the initial disclosure the publisher began receiving other questions from media sources about the book and while Pellegrino answered the questions, Holt was not fully satisfied with the answers. Holt shipped 18,000 copies of the book and will issus a credit to wholesalers and retailers on returns of the book. Consumers can also seek a credit from their retailer on the title.
Here's the NYT story:
file:///Users/garyknutson/Documents/Doubts%20Raised%20on%20Book’s%20Tale%20of%20Atom%20Bomb%20-%20NYTimes.com.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/books/21hiroshima.html?pagewanted=print
An illuminating review appears on Amazon:
What's Gone Wrong With Book Reviewers?,February 21, 2010 I just read the New York Times article about the deception Mr. Pelligrino fell for--a Mr. Fuoco claiming to have flown on the bombing run on Hiroshima and also related a story about a pre-flight accident with the bomb that killed a scientist and rendered the bomb a "dud". (Some dud--70,000 people killed when it hit.) All of this not true. My problem here is not so much that Mr. Pelligrino wrote a bad book--anyone can do that. Or that the errors in the book amount to historical mal-practice which is deplorable as this book will be held by many libraries for many years, perhaps duping many more readers down the years. My problem is the fact that this book got positive reviews in the mainstream press (including the NYT). I have to ask--what has gone wrong with the process of reviewing books? And backing up one step--what's gone wrong with the publishing industry that allows error-riddled books to pass muster? Doesn't the publishing industry employ copy editors and fact-checkers any more? And who gets selected to review books like this--reviewers who obviously aren't qualified to pass judgemnet on the book's quality or accuracy? Where are the experts who could vouch for a book's accuracy--why aren't they being sought out to review books about which they are recognized subject experts? It should be a scandal. The same thing happened last summer with the publication of Craig Nelson's book Rocket Men. It got glowing reviews in the mainstream press and he even appeared as part of a panel discussion at a NASA History Office conference celebrating the fourtieth anniversary of Apollo 11. Yet his book is full of errors of fact and, perhaps, worse, very questionable assertions (e.g.; that the Gemini Program was of limited success and it should have been more integrated into the Apollo Progarm---both ludicrous assertions) both of which betray his lack of understanding of his subject. He may have written some well crafted prose, but the demands of a good history require the author get the facts correct first and foremost. Both of these books failed that elemental test and still got rave reviews. That's the real disgrace. Thomas J. Frieling University of Georgia Libraries tfrielin@uga.edu
By Thomas J. Frieling (Athens, GA) - See all my reviews
More about this scandal later. Suffice it to say that publishers aren't vetting books, the reviewers aren't taking the elementary step of consulting noted experts (such as, in this case, the author of "Racing for the Bomb"), and so slanted views and political agenda poison readers.
Note also that the book's author plans to make corrections only for the "paperback and foreign editions." We're supposed to ignore the lies in the 18,000 copies already publisshed.
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