Words for the Taking: The Hunt for a Plagiarist - Hardcover

Bowers, Neal

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393040070 ISBN 13: 9780393040074

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1997

Synopsis

A poet and English professor describes his discovery that several of his poems had been stolen and discusses his frustrating search for the elusive plagiarist responsible for the thefts, its effect on his life, and the results of his quest.

About this title

Review:

In Words for the Taking author Neal Bowers takes the reader on an unusual hunt for a literary stalker. A poet and teacher by profession, Bowers became a detective out of necessity when he discovered one of his poems had been plagiarized and repeatedly published by someone calling himself David Sumner. Later, he learned Sumner had stolen more of his work and the poems of other writers as well. Here he describes his almost surreal search for the plagiarist and its surprising aftermath.

For Neal Bowers, David Sumner--a.k.a. David Jones--became an almost mythic adversary, and Bowers's quest for justice a kind of heroic quest. The character of the plagiarist is at the heart of this story: who was "David Sumner" and why did he steal another man's words? The answers to these questions prove as troubling as they are startling.

About the Author:

Neal Bowers, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a professor of English at Iowa State University, is the author of eight books, including Loose Ends; Theodore Roethke: The Journey from I to Otherwise; James Dickey: The Poet As Pitchman; and Out of the South, a collection of poems. He has published more than four hundred poems and essays and received numerous awards for his writing, notably a National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowship, the Rainmaker Award, and the Midland Author’s Award.

About this edition

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0393040070
• ISBN 13: 9780393040074
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 143