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Thursday, October 05, 2006

Fiddling While Tome Burns

A British house is madly burning copies of a book it just published about the ancient art of playing the violin at funerals. Turns out the author made it all up.

In 208 pages [the author] told how the Guild of Funerary Violinists – motto Nullus Funus Sine Fidula (No Funeral Without A Fiddle) - had been established in 1580, received a Royal warrant from Queen Elizabeth 1, flourished under practitioners like George Babcotte and Herr Hieronymous Gratchenfleiss, and was almost wiped out by the "great funerary purges of the 1830’s and 40s."

Such was the fervour of the art, he said, that violinists duelled with each other at funerals to see who could wring the most tears from mourners.

Duckworth’s owner Peter Mayer, who also owns the American publishing house Overlook, reputedly paid Kriwaczek – acting president of the Guild of Funerary Violinists - more than £1,000 for the book: 'An Incomplete History of the Art of the Funerary Violin' which is currently on sale in Britain for £14.99.

Except, as has now been discovered, there is, nor never was, any such thing as a funerary violin, nor a guild, nor a Royal warrant, nor a history, let alone an incomplete one.


That was the Daily Mail. The New York Times is also sawing away, featuring the hoax on the first page of its arts section.

Database searches for the Guild of Funerary Violinists produced few results, among them Mr. Kriwaczek’s Web site, a MySpace page and a deleted Wikipedia entry on the topic.


The American publisher, Overlook, having overlooked the obvious, will brazen it out and publish the book anyway. It'll make good money as a hoax.
Posted at: 10/05/2006 07:17:00 AM