The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 51, December 22, 2002, Article 7

NEW HOFMANN BOOK

There is a new book out about one of my favorite numismatic
neer-do-wells, Mark Hofmann. It was brought to my attention
in an article by Dick Duncan in the December 2002 (Vol 19,
No 3) issue of The Clarion, the official publication of the
Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists. The article, titled
"A Fantastic Forger" was based on a new book by Simon
Worrall, "The Poet and the Murderer: A True Story of Literary
Crime and the Art of Forgery". It was published in April 2002.

I am also grateful to Eric P. Newman, whose Numismatic
Theatre talk at an ANA convention several years ago first
introduced me to the exploits of Hofmann, who counterfeited
coins and paper money, in particular Mormon Notes.
Several items pictured in Alvin Rust's book ("Mormon and
Utah Coin and Currency", Salt Lake City, 1984) are
Hofmann forgeries. Mr. Rust gave a talk at a subsequent
ANA, describing how he had been taken in by Hofmann's
masterful work. He issued an addendum sheet listing the
known forgeries pictured in his book.

Coins were just a jumping-off point for Hofmann. He branched
out into forging documents of all kinds, and made a specialty
of "discovering" documents which tweaked officials of the
Mormon church. The new book centers around a copy of
an Emily Dickinson poem forged by Hofmann.

From the barnesandnoble.com web site: "Even among master
forgers, Mark Hofmann possessed an unmatched audacity.
During his relatively brief career, he fabricated more than
1,000 historical documents, ranging from manuscript letters
of Daniel Boone and Mormon founder Joseph Smith to the
long-vanished 17th-century printed broadside "Oath of a
Freeman." He even penned an original poem supposedly by
Emily Dickinson, although he himself was only a mediocre
writer. Hypnotized by his own brazenness and by the ease
of his success, Hofmann created Ponzi schemes for financial
backers.

Finally, caught between anxious creditors and bank deadlines,
he scrambled for extreme solutions. Finally, he turned to
murder by means of homemade bombs."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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