Plagiarism Charges Plague Young Author
By Dr. Syed Amir
Bethesda, MD

She is only nineteen and a second-year student at Harvard University, but her name has become well known to millions of people around the globe.
Kaavya Viswanathan, a first-generation Indian-American, gained huge notoriety when her first novel “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life” was recently withdrawn from bookstores across the United States after charges of plagiarism surfaced. Only a few weeks ago, her novel had climbed to 32nd place in the New York Times’ bestseller list among books of fiction. Her publishers, Little, Brown and Co. had been so impressed with her literary talents and style that, while she was still 17, they signed a contract with her for two books, offering her an advance of $500,000.
Customarily, authors also receive a royalty of 15 percent of the cover price of their books. For a teenager, with no prior literary experience, it was an astounding windfall. The book advance was just the start. Her sudden fame attracted the attention of movie makers, and it was reported that negotiations were already underway to produce a film based on her novel, a venture potentially far more lucrative than the book rights she had sold to Little, Brown and Co.
This fairy tale came to an abrupt end however. The novel had been in bookstores only a few weeks, when the Harvard student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, charged Viswanathan with plagiarism, claiming that she had copied some passages in her book from two novels by the popular American author Megan McCafferty, Sloppy First and Second Helpings. In total, it was alleged that more than forty passages in Viswanathan’s novel may have been borrowed from McCafferty’s two books. Soon, the controversy spread beyond the Harvard campus. The Crimson article caught the attention of the respected national newspapers The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others; both extensively covered the story in several feature articles. The plagiarism allegations went beyond Ms. McCafferty’s two books. Some journalists discovered that at least three passages in Viswanathan’s book may have been borrowed from another novel, Can You Keep a Secret, by the British author, Sophie Kinsella,
Initially, Viswanathan denied the charge that she had copied any segment of her novel from any other sources, conceding, however, that she was an ardent admirer of McCafferty’s writings, having read them several times while she was a high school student. She claimed that she had a photographic memory and might have internalized what she read, and that any similarities between the contents of her novel and McCafferty’s books were unconscious and inadvertent. Her publishers initially stood by her side while the dispute raged and refused to recall the book.
Both the author and the publisher promised that a revised version of the novel would soon be issued that would be free from the contentious passages. They had hoped that these steps would squelch the flames of controversy. This assessment, alas, proved to be overly optimistic. As the trouble mushroomed and compelling evidence of literary misconduct mounted, the publishers were eventually forced to recall all 100,000 copies of the book shipped to bookstores. Paradoxically as the book was withdrawn, it became a collector’s item. The price of the few available copies jumped to $90, much higher than its cover value. In the aftermath of all the accusations, Viswanathan’s second book contract was also cancelled.
The story in the book follows a popular theme, familiar in much recent fiction: children of parents who emigrated from the Indian subcontinent who find themselves torn between two cultures. The heroine, Opal Mehta, is an upper-class, Indian-American girl, much like the author herself, whose parents desperately desire to get her admitted to Harvard. After many preparations, when she appeared for an admission interview, the Harvard Dean advised her that her academic credentials alone were not enough to get her the admission; she needed something more. She had to make some new friends, taste life outside the classroom and find some romance in her life. She embraced the advice whole-heartedly, but then having accomplished all that, she felt unfulfilled, realizing that a middle course between the two differing lifestyles was the best choice. Some critics had initially lauded the book before plagiarism was discovered commenting favorably on Viswanathan’s writing style and her potential as a creative writer.
The story of Viswanathan’s journey to Harvard and her debut as an author is both interesting and instructive. It underscores the pressures which children of ambitious immigrant parents find themselves under as they strive to comply with the expectations of their parents. Born in Chennai (Madras) India, she spent a decade growing up in England, before her parents, both physicians, moved to America. Admission to highly competitive Ivy League schools, like Harvard, requires some professional advice and packaging, besides simple scholastic achievements. To bolster her admission prospects to Harvard, her affluent parents hired a private counselor to help her prepare her application and study for various entrance tests, for a sum of $10,000 or $20,000. The investment proved worthwhile, since Viswanathan was admitted to Harvard two years ago.
Besides facilitating her admission, the counselor also helped her in promoting her writing as well, introducing her to an editor of one of the book prepackaging companies that specialize in young-adult fiction. Professional writing in the West has been transformed into a highly commercialized, sophisticated enterprise. Editors working at these companies often initiate a concept, develop a story line, identify characters, and then find a willing author to write the book along the broad outlines specified by them. Viswanathan, who started her book project as a high school student, also received help in developing at least the first four chapters of her book.
Some book critics have taken a compassionate view of Viswanathan’s confessed transgressions, describing them as youthful indiscretions of a teenager. However, incidents of plagiarism are not unknown even in the writings of established, experienced authors. One of the most famous cases is that of the highly popular historian, Doris Goodwin, a Harvard professor who had won the Pulitzer Prize for literature and worked for some time for President Lyndon Johnson. She was accused a few years ago of copying in her book, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, dozen and dozen of phrases from the book of another author, Kathleen Kennedy. Godwin later apologized, attributing her lapses to the negligence of her research assistants. The incident, however, did not permanently damage her career or reputation as a writer.
While Harvard University ponders over the question of what penalty if any should be imposed on Viswanathan, the young author remains on an extended leave of absence. Meanwhile, most critics hope that she would learn from her mistakes and will in time emerge as a mature author with an original style and expression.

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Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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