Editing Jerzy Kosiński (section)

== Criticism ==
According to [[Eliot Weinberger]], an American writer, essayist, editor and translator, Kosiński was not the author of ''The Painted Bird''. Weinberger alleged in his 2000 book ''Karmic Traces'' that Kosiński was not fluent in English at the time of its writing.<ref name = "Weinberger">Eliot Weinberger ''Genuine Fakes'' in his collection ''Karmic Traces''; New Directions, 2000, {{ISBN|978-0-8112-1456-8}}</ref>

In a review of ''[[Jerzy Kosinski: A Biography|Jerzy Kosiński: A Biography]]'' by [[James Park Sloan]], D.G. Myers, associate professor of English at Texas A&M University wrote "For years Kosinski passed off ''The Painted Bird'' as the true story of his own experience during the Holocaust. Long before writing it he regaled friends and dinner parties with macabre tales of a childhood spent in hiding among the Polish peasantry. Among those who were fascinated was Dorothy de Santillana, a senior editor at [[Houghton Mifflin]], to whom Kosiński confided that he had a manuscript based on his experiences. Upon accepting the book for publication, Santillana said 'It is my understanding that, fictional as the material may sound, it is straight autobiography'. Although he backed away from this statement, Kosiński never wholly disavowed it."<ref name = "Myers">{{Cite web |url=http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9610/myers.html |title=D. G. Myers, ''Jerzy Kosinski: A Biography'' by James Park Sloan |access-date=November 12, 2006 |archive-date=October 24, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061024025155/http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9610/myers.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

M.A. Orthofer addressed Weinberger's assertion: "Kosinski was, in many respects, a fake – possibly near as genuine a one as Weinberger could want. (One aspect of the best fakes is the lingering doubt that, possibly, there is some authenticity behind them – as is the case with Kosinski.) Kosinski famously liked to pretend he was someone he wasn't (as do many of the characters in his books), he occasionally published under a pseudonym, and, apparently, he plagiarized and forged left and right."<ref name = "Orthofer">{{Cite web |url=http://www.complete-review.com/quarterly/vol2/issue1/ffakes.htm |title="Facts and Fakes" by M.A.Orthofer |access-date=February 14, 2007 |archive-date=October 18, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061018235823/http://www.complete-review.com/quarterly/vol2/issue1/ffakes.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Kosiński addressed these claims in the introduction to the 1976 reissue of ''The Painted Bird'', saying that "Well-intentioned writers, critics, and readers sought facts to back up their claims that the novel was autobiographical. They wanted to cast me in the role of spokesman for my generation, especially for those who had survived the war; but for me, survival was an individual action that earned the survivor the right to speak only for himself. Facts about my life and my origins, I felt, should not be used to test the book's authenticity, any more than they should be used to encourage readers to read ''The Painted Bird''. Furthermore, I felt then, as I do now, that fiction and autobiography are very different modes."<ref>{{cite book|title=''The Painted Bird''|last=Kosinski|first=Jerry|pages=[https://archive.org/details/paintedbird00kosi_0/page/ xiii–xiv]|year=1976|publisher=Grove Press Books|isbn=0-8021-3422-X|no-pp=true|url=https://archive.org/details/paintedbird00kosi_0/page/}}</ref>

=== Plagiarism allegations ===
In June 1982, a ''Village Voice'' report by Geoffrey Stokes and Eliot Fremont-Smith alleged Kosiński wrote ''The Painted Bird'' in Polish, and had it secretly translated into English. The report said that Kosiński's books had been ghost-written by "assistant editors", finding [[stylistics (linguistics)|stylistic]] differences among Kosiński's novels. Kosiński, according to them, had depended upon his freelance editors for "the sort of composition that we usually call writing." American biographer [[James Park Sloan|James Sloan]] notes that New York poet, publisher and translator [[George Reavey]] said he had written ''The Painted Bird'' for Kosiński.<ref>[[George Reavey]] [http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9610/myers.html D. G. Myers, ''Jerzy Kosinski: A Biography'' by James Park Sloan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061024025155/http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9610/myers.html |date=October 24, 2006 }}</ref>

The article found a more realistic picture of Kosiński's life during the Holocaust – a view which was supported by biographers [[Joanna Siedlecka]] and Sloan. The article asserted that ''The Painted Bird,'' assumed to be semi-autobiographical, was largely a work of fiction. The information showed that rather than wandering the Polish countryside, as his fictional character did, Kosiński spent the war years [[Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust|in hiding with Polish Catholics]].

[[Terence Blacker]], an English publisher (who helped publish Kosiński's books) and author of children's books and mysteries for adults, wrote an article published in ''[[The Independent]]'' in 2002:

<blockquote>The significant point about Jerzy Kosiński was that...his books...had a vision and a voice consistent with one another and with the man himself. The problem was perhaps that he was a successful, worldly author who played polo, moved in fashionable circles and even appeared as an actor in Warren Beatty's ''Reds''. He seemed to have had an adventurous and rather kinky sexuality which, to many, made him all the more suspect. All in all, he was a perfect candidate for the snarling pack of literary hangers-on to turn on. There is something about a storyteller becoming rich and having a reasonably full private life that has a powerful potential to irritate so that, when things go wrong, it causes a very special kind of joy.<ref name="Blacker">
[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20020617/ai_n12627315 "Plagiarism? Let's just call it postmodernism" by Terence Blacker] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071215101500/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20020617/ai_n12627315 |date=15 December 2007 }}</ref></blockquote>

Journalist John Corry wrote a 6,000-word feature article in ''The New York Times'' in November 1982, responding and defending Kosiński, which appeared on the front page of the Arts and Leisure section. Among other things, Corry alleged that reports that "Kosinski was a plagiarist in the pay of the [[C.I.A.]] were the product of a Polish Communist [[disinformation]] campaign."<ref name = "Corry(2)">{{cite news |last=Corry |first=John |date=November 7, 1982 |title=17 YEARS OF IDEOLOGICAL ATTACK ON A CULTURAL TARGET |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/07/books/17-years-of-ideological-attack-on-a-cultural-target.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=May 23, 2019 |archive-date=June 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190604202318/https://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/07/books/17-years-of-ideological-attack-on-a-cultural-target.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In an essay published in ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' in 1999, Kosiński's sometime lover, Laurie Stieber, wrote that he incorporated passages from her letters into the revised and expanded 1981 edition of his 1973 novel ''The Devil Tree'', without asking her. "The allegations in the ''Voice''," wrote Stieber, "combined with what I knew to be true about the revised edition of ''The Devil Tree'', left me with a gnawing mistrust in all aspects of our relationship. I hadn’t wavered, however, from my opinion that he was an extraordinary intellectual and philosopher, a brilliant storyteller and, yes, writer. But ego, and the fear of having his credibility strip-searched by erudite Polish or Russian editors, were behind his insistence on writing in English rather than using translators. By borrowing too greedily, Jerzy inadvertently wrote the ''Village Voice'' article himself."<ref>{{cite magazine| website=New York| title=Her Private Devil| first=Laurie| last=Stieber| date=January 4, 1999| url=https://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/features/1063/| accessdate=July 5, 2023| archive-date=July 5, 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705201315/https://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/features/1063/| url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1988, Kosiński wrote ''The Hermit of 69th Street'', in which he sought to demonstrate the absurdity of investigating prior work by inserting footnotes for practically every term in the book.<ref name = "Komisar">{{Cite web |url=http://www.nytheatre-wire.com/lk01033t.htm#2 |title=New York Theatre Wire: "More Lies About Jerzy" by Lucy Komisar |access-date=November 12, 2006 |archive-date=November 17, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061117061211/http://www.nytheatre-wire.com/lk01033t.htm#2 |url-status=live }}</ref> "Ironically," wrote theatre critic Lucy Komisar, "possibly his only true book&nbsp;... about a successful author who is shown to be a fraud."<ref name = "Komisar" />

Despite repudiation of the ''Village Voice'' allegations of plagiarism in detailed articles in ''The New York Times'', ''The Los Angeles Times'', and other publications, Kosiński remained tainted. "I think it contributed to his death," said [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]], a friend and fellow Polish emigrant.<ref name="Taylor"/>