Jane Goodall reportedly plagiarized much of her new book, “Seeds of Hope” and, worse still,
included quotes from an interview that the interviewee said he doesn't remember.
The coverage of the scandal was mostly deferential. The Washington Post broke the news in a story by Steven Levingston, who wrote that problems with the book came to the paper’s attention through a botanist commissioned to review it. A few other stories followed, and then at the Daily Beast, Michael Moynihan took an unsparing look at the book and at his fellow journalists for failing to state clearly what was wrong with it. (I believe this must be the same Michael Moynihan who pointed out Jonah Lehrer’s fabricated Bob Dylan quote.)
In the Post story, Levingston noted
some passages that were nearly word for word identical to those from books, websites and other sources. One substantial chunk of text was identical to one found on a website for organic tea, and another long passage on Philadelphia botanist John Bartram matched part of an entry in Wikipedia. He also noted that the book was co-authored by a writer named Gail Hudson. There’s much to be sorted out here, but it’s hard to see how either author, co-author or the publisher could escape blame.
The final example Levingston offers is particularly damning.
Goodall concludes the story with a comment she says botanist Matt Daws made to her: “If seeds can survive that long in such poor conditions, then that’s good news for the ones that are stored under ideal conditions in the Millennium Seed Bank,’ Matt Daws said to me.”
Virtually the same quote from Daws appears on the Gardens Web site in a 2009 article with the headline “Plant story — 200 year old seeds spring to life”: “If seed can survive that long in poor conditions, then that’s good news for those in the Millennium Seed Bank stored under ideal conditions.” Asked in an e-mail whether he ever had a conversation with Goodall, Daws replied: “To be perfectly honest I have no recollection of speaking to her.”
Claiming to do an interview that never happened and making up a quote is hard to chalk up to some kind of innocent mistake. Could it be that Goodall, 78, is suffering from a failing memory?
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