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‘Goodall writes of “Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous autobiographical book Confessions of an English Opium Eater,” a book that she found to be a “very harrowing read.” Goodall was apparently so moved by the book that she failed to notice that it was, in fact, famously written by Thomas de Quincey.’

As with most plagiarism cases, Jane Goodall’s plagiarism, and – see this post’s quotation – sloppiness, is far worse than initially thought.

Margaret Soltan, March 28, 2013 1:58PM
Posted in: plagiarism

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4 Responses to “‘Goodall writes of “Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous autobiographical book Confessions of an English Opium Eater,” a book that she found to be a “very harrowing read.” Goodall was apparently so moved by the book that she failed to notice that it was, in fact, famously written by Thomas de Quincey.’”

  1. Bernard Carroll Says:
    March 28th, 2013 at 3:21PM

    Famous people don’t always know when to bow out gracefully. At age 78, Jane Goodall may well be developing some cognitive slippage. That could account for such an egregious and sloppy error of attribution. Call it failure of declarative memory or call the entire episode failure of frontal lobe control, this may be the signal for her to exit the stage.

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:
    March 28th, 2013 at 4:13PM

    My guess is that Goodall has never seen the sentence before. I think her research assistant probably wrote most of the book.

  3. Bernard Carroll Says:
    March 28th, 2013 at 5:09PM

    I think that’s right, but it all seems out of character with the earlier persona. I recall her bravery when she was taken hostage by soldiers in Tanzania in the late 1960s. It’s possible this is a case of an aging icon being used by those who have long feasted off her success.

  4. Bernard Carroll Says:
    March 28th, 2013 at 7:07PM

    Correction: Jane Goodall was not actually taken hostage when her camp was overrun by Zairean bandits. She was away from the camp on account of an illness. I stand by the comment about her bravery.

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