Fraudulent

This news reminded me that one unsuccessful Victorian writer, "Osborn W. Trenery Heighway" (a.k.a. Gordon Trenery) was convicted on similar grounds for writing a fake Christian autobiography and peddling it as the real thing.  The publisher was unamused; in fact, Heighway/Trenery's Royal Literary Fund case file contains a letter from said publisher, noting that his wayward author had failed to pay up.  Another one of Heighway/Trenery's productions, Leila Ada, the Jewish Convert, still occasionally rates a mention from both evangelical Protestants and  Messianic Jews.  (Here is Trenery publishing under his own name--or, in any event, what purports to be his own name; in 1908, somebody wondered if Heighway was any relation to his own family.  A friend from graduate school, Larry Zygmunt, first pointed out Heighway's malfeasance to me while I was writing this article, in which Leila Ada--and this anecdote--puts in an appearance.)