A – Ambition

A – Ambition

Arthur was a writer. From childhood to adulthood, all he wanted to do was write and be published. 

As a child, he mostly wrote fiction and let his imagination bring up all kinds of creatures and adventures his characters would go on. Most of the ideas, though, were spurred on by the television shows he watched and the comics he read. Was that truly his imagination at work? That’s hard to say. However, he did get great praise from his teachers and others who weren’t as familiar with the scenarios from which he got his sparks.

As he reached high school and college, he noticed many published books centered on the world around him. The politics of the time, the history of past struggles for freedom, and famous people who impacted the world, folk and fairytales. 

The more he read, the more convinced he became that if he were going to be published, he would need a background that people knew about and respected. 

So, he began to take from other cultures and histories and make them his own. 

Yes, he had Native American blood and could write about events that had happened to family members. His mother was of Sioux descent.

In 1934, his Jewish father immigrated to the United States from Germany and fought for the Americans on D-Day in World War II. He wrote about specific events that his father had shared with him as a child. And publishers ate it up. They wanted Arthur to write a book for them. Arthur was to realize his dream come true. 

At age 25, Arthur got his first book published by PellemVerse Publishing. It was entitled On the Front. It was a first-hand account of D-Day, stories about his father, and the battles fought in WW II. The fact that Arthur’s father died ten years before the book was published made it somewhat difficult for anyone to verify anything written in the book. Besides, the book sold, so the publishing company wasn’t rushing to check.

His next book, Wounded at Wounded Knee, told first-hand stories from his mother’s side of the family. 

People bought his books in droves. There was talk that he would soon be on the New York Times Best Seller list when his collection of Native American folktales came out. 

Through all of his writing, though written well, no one ever questioned his background. Everything he wrote seemed so authentic. 

That’s the trouble with trusting what you read. 

It was a husband-and-wife team (Henry, a genealogist, and Winona, an actual Native American descendant) who discovered the truth about Arthur’s real identity with the help of one of Arthur’s Elementary School teachers. 

Arthur was a fraud. Neither of his parents came from where he said they did. Although separated, they were still living. Arthur paid them a significant sum from the sales of his first book to go into hiding and not reveal who or where they were. 

Winona, who herself was an expert in Native American Folklore and the Sioux nation, noticed the discrepancies in Arthur’s accounts and his claims that certain folktales were of Sioux origin. Henry’s work proved that Arthur’s family did not come from where he claimed. Leonard Feinman, Arthur’s 5th grade teacher, corroborated this. He had kept all of Arthur’s writing and records, somewhat of a packrat, kept all of his student’s stuff, hoping that someday they would be worth something. Leonard was honest, not like some who might have blackmailed Arthur; Leonard was more than willing to share what he had when he was interviewed by Henry after being found through one of Henry’s background searches. The truth needed to be shared. 

And shared it was. Following the revelations, countless articles in newspapers and magazines denounced Arthur. His publishing company’s reputation was ruined. Courts were tied up with the number of suits against Arthur and PellemVerse Publishing. Arthur’s writing career was finished. 

The only ones who would benefit from his work were his parents. You can read more about that in their new book, Born to Lie. Its release day is today, April 1st. An appropriate date for its release – April Fool’s Day.