Common Book Forgeries — The Most Frequently Faked Authors, Titles, and Signatures

Book forgery is as old as book collecting itself. Where there is value, there are people willing to create false evidence of that value — forged signatures, fabricated inscriptions, altered title pages, and outright fake editions. Understanding which authors and types of material are most frequently forged is essential knowledge for any collector spending significant money.

The Economics of Forgery

Forgers target items where:

• The value premium for the forgery is high — a signature that adds $5,000 to a book’s value is more worth forging than one that adds $50
• Authentic examples are scarce — rare signatures are harder for buyers to compare against genuine examples
• Verification is difficult — authors who signed inconsistently or whose handwriting changed dramatically are easier targets
• The market is active — forgeries of authors with strong collector demand sell more readily

Most Commonly Forged Signatures

Literary Authors

Ernest Hemingway — one of the most forged American literary signatures. Hemingway’s bold, distinctive signature is superficially easy to imitate, but genuine examples have specific characteristics that forgers frequently miss: the particular formation of the “H,” the way the “y” descends, and the confident pen pressure that varied characteristically over his career.

F. Scott Fitzgerald — valuable signatures on The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night make Fitzgerald a prime forgery target. Genuine Fitzgerald signatures are relatively scarce, as he was not a prolific signer.

William Faulkner — Faulkner disliked signing books and did so infrequently, making genuine signatures rare and valuable. The scarcity means fewer authentic examples exist for comparison, aiding forgers.

J.D. Salinger — notoriously reclusive, Salinger almost never signed books after achieving fame. This extreme scarcity makes his signature among the most valuable and most forged of twentieth-century authors.

Mark Twain — signed extensively during his lifetime, but the high value of Twain signatures (particularly on first editions of his major works) has generated a steady supply of forgeries.

Jack London — prolific signer during his lifetime but highly collectible, resulting in numerous forgeries in circulation.

Genre Authors

J.R.R. Tolkien — signed relatively few books, and the enormous value of signed Hobbit and Lord of the Rings first editions has created a strong forgery incentive. Tolkien forgeries are common in the market.

Ian Fleming — Fleming first editions are valuable, and his signature adds significant premium. Forged Fleming signatures are regularly encountered.

Arthur Conan Doyle — Sherlock Holmes collecting drives demand for Doyle’s signature, and forgeries circulate at all market levels.

Historical Figures

Abraham Lincoln — one of the most forged American signatures due to its enormous value and the difficulty of verification across a long career.

George Washington — similarly targeted for its value.

Benjamin Franklin — often forged in period-appropriate media to mimic authenticity.

Most Commonly Faked Editions

Title Page Forgeries

In the era before dust jackets, the title page was the primary identifier of a book’s edition. Forgers have created substitute title pages to upgrade later editions to appear as first editions:

Shakespeare’s plays — sophisticated title page forgeries have been created for the quarto editions and the First Folio. The most famous are Thomas J. Wise’s forgeries of nineteenth-century literary pamphlets, which fooled experts for decades.

Dust Jacket Forgeries

The enormous value premium that a dust jacket adds to certain first editions has created a market for forged and facsimile jackets:

The Great Gatsby — the Francis Cugat dust jacket adds $100,000+ to a first edition. Facsimile jackets exist and are sometimes fraudulently presented as originals.

The Sun Also Rises — first-edition dust jackets are extraordinarily rare and valuable, creating forgery incentive.

Casino Royale — Ian Fleming’s first novel with its original dust jacket commands a high premium, and reproduction jackets circulate.

Detection Tips for Jacket Forgeries

• Paper: Original jackets from the 1920s–1950s are on paper that has aged naturally. Reproduction paper may be too white, too smooth, or have the wrong weight.
• Printing: Original letterpress printing has a slight impression into the paper; modern offset printing sits flat on the surface.
• Ink: Period inks age differently from modern inks. Under ultraviolet light, old and new inks often fluoresce differently.
• Wear patterns: A genuine jacket that has been on a book for 70+ years shows characteristic wear (edge rubbing, fading along the spine). A forgery may show artificial aging or no aging at all.

Thomas J. Wise: The Bibliographer-Forger

Thomas James Wise (1859–1937) was one of the most respected bibliographers and book collectors of his era — and also one of the most prolific literary forgers. Beginning in the 1880s, Wise created over fifty forged pamphlets, attributing them to major Victorian authors including Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Tennyson, Swinburne, Kipling, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

His most famous forgery was Sonnets from the Portuguese (1847), an edition purporting to be the first separate publication of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poems — actually fabricated by Wise using a modern typeface on paper manufactured after the supposed date of publication.

Wise’s forgeries were not exposed until 1934, when John Carter and Graham Pollard published An Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth Century Pamphlets, demonstrating through chemical paper analysis and typographical evidence that the pamphlets were modern fabrications.

The Wise case illustrates that expertise and reputation do not immunise against forgery — Wise used his standing as a bibliographer to authenticate his own creations.

Protecting Yourself

Buy from Reputable Sources

ABAA and ABA members have professional reputations to protect and are accountable to their trade associations. They guarantee the authenticity of what they sell and will accept returns if an item proves inauthentic.

Major auction houses employ specialists who examine material and guarantee authenticity (typically with a five-year guarantee period).

Educate Yourself

Study genuine examples of signatures you plan to collect. Museum and library collections often have authenticated examples. Published facsimiles of genuine signatures (in bibliographies and reference works) provide comparison material.

Obtain Third-Party Authentication

For high-value signatures and inscriptions, consider professional authentication:

• PSA/DNA — authenticates autographs and provides encapsulated authentication
• JSA (James Spence Authentication) — another major authenticator
• Specialist dealers — dealers who specialise in an author’s works often have deep knowledge of genuine signatures

Use Technology

Ultraviolet examination can reveal different inks, paper brighteners, and erasures. High-resolution comparison with known genuine examples can identify inconsistencies in letter formation.

Trust Your Instincts

If a deal seems too good to be true — a signed Salinger first edition at a flea market, a Hemingway presentation copy from an unknown source — it probably is. The most common path to purchasing a forgery is the desire to believe that you have found an extraordinary bargain.