This Best-Selling Novel Was A Total Hoax!

so it's april of 1956 and radio host gene shepherd is on a roll during his overnight show on wor radio in new york the latest source of his ire people who pretend to know everything you know the snobs the posers who fancy themselves scholarly critics the day people who blindly follow every manufactured fad the vain townsfolk who complement the emperor's new clothes new york shepherd bemoans is nothing but a society of pseudo-intellectuals bound by lists nobody cares about a show unless it's nominated for a tony or a movie until it gets an oscar nod nobody buys a book if it's not a new york times best seller but once something gets on a list suddenly everybody's got an opinion on it everybody becomes an expert so gene has an idea why not play a trick on these know-it-alls and expose them as the frauds they really are at two o'clock in the morning shep hatches a plan with his late night early morning listeners what do you say tomorrow morning each one of us walk into a bookstore and ask for a book that we know does not exist the idea is simple make up a pretentious sounding novel written by a pretentious sounding author create a fake demand and then see how many supposed scholars of the world suddenly know everything there is to know about it over the next few hours jean and his loyal listeners invent a fake best seller by the title of i libertine the first volume in a trilogy on 18th century court life written by one frederick r ewing a supposed oxford graduate and former world war ii british commander currently a civil servant of rhodesia where he spends his free time in the pursuits of scholarly writing eye libertine is naturally a very scholarly work set in england during the 1700s chronicling the exploits of lance courtney by day a respected man about town by night in uninhibited rake gene shepard tasks his audience with this mission in the morning walk into a bookstore and ask for a copy of the book then sit back and watch the fireworks now you go in and don't crack a smile don't do anything and you'll walk in and say i would like to have a copy of i libertine by frederick ewing and he'll take out a list and he'll look it up and you'll see that it is not listed he will turn to you and say there's no such book and leave the next guy that comes in and asks for this he'll say uh uh it's on order and the third one that comes in he's going to be on his phone calling the distributor well if 422 bookstores call in he's going to be calling publishers weekly i says now get out and go and we'll sit back and see what happens shepard's listeners do is instructed and before long the publishing world is in a frenzy doubleday gets dozens of calls in the morning for the title booksellers all over are stumped by the sudden demand for a book they don't have on any of their lists and they slam publishers weekly with queries on locating the distributor before long i libertine is in such demand that the new york times sunday section places the title on its list of newly published works and the phonies fall for it sure enough the next day a guy says you know he says for years this guy in this a street bookstore with this beard has had me totally buffaloed he says i went in there today and i said to this guy i'd like a copy of i liberty by ewing and he says he looked up from behind the cash register and said yo it's about time the public discovered him and i'm getting these calls from people over one woman wrote in and she said she was sitting in her bridge party and she just casually mentioned i've been reading i liberty and three ladies started to discuss it [Music] they not only had read it they finished it and two of them didn't like it [Laughter] two weeks later they're coming in from all over the country seeing what's happening all over social scenes are filled with people who have an opinion on the book almost all of whom are of course making up that they've read it just to fit in and gene shepherd spends the next few weeks of his overnight program keeping his listeners up to date on just how absurd the hoax is getting student director he says i'm in this history of english writing course and he said i wrote a term paper on fr ewing eclectic historian and it was about a nine page paper with footnotes quotes from ewing's earlier bbc broadcast references and the thing he said it to me and it had a big red thing on the front of it it said superb research he got a b-plus you know and the guy he says what my whole education is probably phony and i says wait let's sit back i said don't say anything just keep asking well you know within four weeks there was a piece appeared in the earl wilson column it said had lunch with freddie ewing on his way to india with his wife marjorie i'm not kidding scales fall from the eyes of his audience the experts and critics and supposed academics around them have utterly fallen for the gag and unknowingly perpetuate the tall tale the philadelphia public library opens a card file on author frederick ewing a new york times columnist does a write-up of the book the village voice reviews it calling it a rousing swashbuckler and a must read various newspapers begin printing articles about i libertine offering their intellectual opinions and before long the night listeners start to get a pretty good idea of just how many of these list makers reviewers and self-proclaimed bookworms are actually total frauds by now i was a little afraid you know next thing you know the president's gonna mention you know that he loves this book see then i wouldn't believe in anything articles mentioning i libertine appear in life newsweek and time magazine as seven weeks into the scheme it was listed as a nationwide bestseller in rome paris and london then finally august rolls around and shepard gets a call from a wall street journal reporter who has spent the better part of the past few months trying to get to the bottom of eye libertine that's right one reporter finally brave enough to go against the grain or realize the book is a total lie and track down its origins he convinces gene to go on record and the following day the story breaks front page middle section the emperor has no clothes eye libertine doesn't exist and anyone claiming to have read it were lying to follow the trend so ask yourself this why did it take so long for folks to realize the papers and literary critics were lying to them why was everybody lying to each other and if you were in new york in 1956 and somebody asked what you thought about the new smash hit ewing's eye libertine what would you have said maybe the most important question what are the eye libertines everyone's reading today oh by the way the story does have a bit of a lighter ending the whole business was such a talk around the world that shepard was quickly approached by a publishing house that offered to write an actual i libertine book to capitalize on the frenzy by the middle of september i libertine from author theodore sturgeon using the pen name frederick ewing hit shelves and became an actual best seller the author photo on the inside cover none other than gene shepard doing his very best author impression trying to look as dissolute as possible shepard made sure that the book's proceeds went to charity this video is sponsored by squarespace they can help you put together a beautiful website in no time and that's no lie start by selecting from one of their many stunning templates and then customize it to your specific needs if you're an aspiring podcaster their audio and video blocks will be right up your alley their all new member areas feature makes it easy to build an online community if you want to sell something they make it easy to set up an online storefront you can get started today by visiting squarespace.com to start a free trial when you're ready to launch your site head over to squarespace.com austinmcconnell to save 10 percent on your first purchase of a website or domain

Channel: AustinMcConnell

Views: 345,020

Keywords: austinmcconnell, austin mcconnell, i libertine, jean shepherd, jene shepherd, fake novel, fake book, frederick ewing

Id: W7H5kFGEyUw

Length: 8min 48sec (528 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 03 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/royaltrux]

Excelsior!

They didn't mention that Jean Shepherd is the main guy behind A Christmas Story (also the narrator, and has a cameo in the department store). The sleepy Indiana town, the Red Ryder BB gun, the frozen flag pole, the "crummy commercial" secret decoder ring, those are his stories he told on the air and in books.

[u/Semilogical]

I barely believe this.

[u/ljcrabs]

The proof that the public "bought it" is a listing on the ny times best seller list, which is funny but harmless, and some anecdotes from his callers. So, it may have all actually been a lie itself.

Isn't it crazy how people pretend to be in on the trend? Yeah it happens, but it's really rare. It doesn't sweep the nation.

[u/TheDeadman_72]

Chris Pratt doing book reviews now.

[u/randomguy101021]

Austin's been making some good stuff recently, and this story is one I've never heard before