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Plagiarism

About This Item

  • Title: Plagiarism
  • Date: 7 September 1857
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01010
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 7 September 1857: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Kaylen Michaelis Kevin McMullen Cassandra Jannel Simms Stefan Schöberlein Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Plagiarism." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 16 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01010.xml (TEI)
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PLAGIARISM.—

Saturday’s Star comes down upon an unlucky literary thief in a manner worthy of Poe,1 the “Literary Mohawk,” himself. In other words, it devotes three columns to prove that Mr. Genio C. Scott,2 a tailor who scribbles a weekly column of rubbish for the man-milliner’s organ, the Home Journal, is a sad plagiarist as well as an ass. Now nobody who ever read the articles in question could for a moment doubt the latter proposition, and as for the first, it is a matter of so little consequence as not to be worth the space spent in demonstrating it. Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle.

Notes:

1. Edgar Allen Poe (1809–1849) was a well-known American writer, critic, and poet who would occasionally be referred to as "Literary Mohawk" due to his harsh criticism. Whitman met Poe in 1845. For more information on Poe and Whitman, see Amy E. Earhart, "Poe, Edgar Allan (1809–1849)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]

2. Genio Columbus Scott (1806–1879) was a well-known illustrator and magazine publisher in the field of fashion. He also published on fly fishing. [back]

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