Great Forgers and Famous Fakes: The Manuscript Forgers of America and How They Duped the Experts

by Charles Hamilton Jr.

Charles Hamilton recognizes a faked signature and believes it to be easily identified, and so will the reader of this book-once he knows what to look for. This is information of immense value to the collector and historian. Well-executed forgeries and fakes have fooled dealers and collectors for more than a century. This thoroughly documented book, containing hundreds of examples that show how to identify the best that the most skillful forgers have produced, will provide the expert and the amateur with tools for self-protection. Great Forgers and Famous Fakes is also a chronicle of the careers of America's most adroit and colorful manuscript forgers, telling who they were and how they swindled their victims. The fascinating stories of forgers and their works include: -the poet who forged hundreds of Robert Frost manuscripts -the multimillionaire industrialist and founder of RCA who got his start as a forger-and years later got fooled by his own fake -the A! merican Nazi who forged John Howard Payne's "Home, Sweet Home" -a round-dozen forgers of Abe Lincoln's handwriting

Genres: Nonfiction

294 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 1988

About the author

American author, handwriting expert and paleographer.

Reviews

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Forgers and Famous Fakes is a rollicking good look at manuscript/signature forgers in the USA. Hamilton is a dealer, and cheerfully describes times he was taken in, times he was not taken in by someone who was not unknowledgeable about the veracity of their documents, and stories from his dealer friends. He has a charming way of writing, and I actually learned something about chirography.

The first chapter, “Twelve Forgers of Honest Abe,” was a splendid beginning to the book, as Hamilton discusses the famed figure and his dishonest forgers. After a few pages, I was right along with Hamilton in dissecting Joseph Cosey’s fake signature (did he even take a ruler to the original? How did he not miss the ascending -ln in Lincoln?). Hamilton shares his information so clearly that I felt much more knowledgeable than I am in this field. At the very least, I have a few interesting things to look for the next time I see a signature or handwritten document. Evidently, many Declaration signers had St Paul-like handwriting, as Hamilton kept pointing out the diminutive size of forgers’ scripts compared to George Washington, John Paul Jones, and others. Also, genuine articles seem to be more illegible, while fakes will be curiously readable. And Lincoln never called himself “Abe.”

I am still laughing about the forger who was caught when he “signed” a posthumously published book. (Pre-Internet mistake, that.) The time Hamilton unwittingly contributed to the market of forgeries makes for a priceless story. Great Forgers and Famous Fakes closes with guidelines on how to spot forgeries. I prefer to own readable copies of books rather than rare or valuable documents (my democratic spirit wishes to see them available to all in libraries), but I would be interested to take these guidelines along on my next antiques excursion to see if there are some spurious examples, likely unknown to their dealers. Hamilton is optimistic that anyone can spot a fake. Some techniques require specialized knowledge (such as Patrick Henry always signed his name P. Henry) and comparisons to real examples (to check for tracings or text size), but others don’t, and that’s where the fun lies for laypeople.

[Nbar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains SPOILERS for real forgery-related events in the 1980s

Several times in this book author Charles Hamilton comments that even though his job as a document dealer requires him to detect deception, it's the work of forgers that adds a little spice to the pursuit in the first place. Hamilton goes into a fair amount of detail about some famous frauds of the American scene, making some interesting observations about the nature of forgery detection along the way. Perhaps the most interesting of these is his comment that a forgery typically has many minor details right but just "looks wrong" overall—more than once, he pronounces a document or signature fake from across the room, or at a glance. He provides a handy checklist of details that should make anyone suspicious, ranging from contextual details (beware of a great deal and a murky provenance) to content (forgers are apparently more concerned with legibility than actual letterwriters!). Hamilton is a real character himself, and a great guide to the sometimes-shadowy world of the inscription/autograph/signature/manuscript trade. A great deal of the book is trade talk of a limited interest to me, complete with numerous comparisons of forged and authentic signatures, but for the most part as a layperson it's quite fascinating.

However, for me the book earns an extra star because of the final chapter of the second (1996) edition. You see, when you read that checklist of things that often give forgers away, you might fleetingly think, why that's also a list of things forgers need to be careful about. You might even think to yourself, it's almost like Hamilton is accidentally teaching a seminar in how someone with the right combination of knowledge, motive, patience and guile could become the greatest forger in American history (well, that we know about). Yes, it's a spoiler for a nonfiction book!

And you'd be right, because that's exactly what happened. It turns out that Hamilton had some dealings with the infamous Mark Hofmann, who was an avid reader of the first edition of Hamilton's book. Combining a background in chemistry (it's the ink that gives a lot of forgers away), a deviously unassuming manner, some real criminal insight, and a personal vendetta against the Mormon Church, Hofmann became a forger of such skill that Hamilton uncharacteristically loses his temper and curses a blue streak (reported rather than transcribed in this volume) upon realizing the role that he's played in Hofmann's crimes, which eventually escalated to murder.

This chapter is just so fascinating. Beginning with Hofmann's greatest crimes, it winds back the clock to Hamilton's realization of how his associate put it together—and even states that he, himself, was the inspiration for Hofmann's blackmailing of the Mormon Chuch, which led to Hofmann's murder-by-bombings of the bishops investigating his document. It's not really that Hofmann himself is a fascinating character, but after spending hundreds of pages with Hamilton explaining the at-times hilariously inept forgeries of lesser minds, it's strangely thrilling to see how someone fooled Hamilton. As awful as Hofmann's crimes were, in terms of forgery there are some amazing moments: the way that he made early-19th century ink and the way that he faked a document's provenance particularly stood out to me. Hofmann's story has been told elsewhere, but hearing it from an acquaintance/accidental mentor/nemesis is a particularly interesting perspective.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the document trade, in forgery, and/or in fascinating crimes.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good info and interesting stories. However many of the stories were almost word for word reprinted from Scribblers and Scoundrels. This book had many more examples, though. A few typos, but overall enjoyable and would recommend.