James Frey
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James Christopher Frey (born September 12, 1969 in Cleveland, Ohio USA) is an American writer. He graduated from Denison University and also attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His first memoir, A Million Little Pieces, was published by Nan Talese/Doubleday in spring 2003. Its follow-up, My Friend Leonard (also a memoir) was published by Riverhead in summer 2005. Both books became New York Times #1 bestsellers. In late 2005 and early 2006, The Smoking Gun and other investigators discovered that elements of his memoir, A Million Little Pieces, were untrue. Frey, along with his wife and daughter, currently resides in New York City.
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[edit] Career
Frey started writing A Million Little Pieces in the spring of 1996. This memoir of Frey's experiences during his treatment at the alcohol and drug addiction treatment facility, Hazelden, was published by Doubleday in April, 2003. Amazon.com editors selected A Million Little Pieces as their favorite book of 2003. In September, 2005, Oprah Winfrey chose A Million Little Pieces for her monthly bookclub. A Million Little Pieces became a bestseller, remaining on the New York Times best seller list for 44 weeks, selling in excess of 4.5 million copies. The New Yorker praised the book as “A frenzied, electrifying description of the experience.”[1]
In 2004, Frey wrote My Friend Leonard, which continues where A Million Little Pieces left off and centers on the father-son relationship Frey and his friend from Hazelden, Leonard, shared. My Friend Leonard was published in June of 2005 by Riverhead, and became a bestseller. Amazon.com editors selected My Friend Leonard as their # 5 favorite book of 2005.
In 2006, Frey began work on a screenplay about the Hells Angels for director Tony Scott. Past screenplays to his credit include Kissing a Fool and Sugar: The Fall of the West. Both were produced in 1998, the latter of which he also directed. Frey has also started writing a new book, which he says should be finished within the next year.
Frey has been published in twenty-nine languages worldwide.
[edit] Controversy
[edit] Public Skepticism
On January 8, 2006, The Smoking Gun website published an article: "A Million Little Lies: Exposing James Frey's Fiction Addiction" alleging that Frey fabricated large parts of his memoirs, including details about his criminal record. [1]One incident in the book that came under particular scrutiny was a 1986 train-automobile collision in St. Joseph Township, Michigan. [2]
The Smoking Gun alleged that Frey had never been incarcerated and that he greatly exaggerated the circumstances of a key arrest detailed in the memoir: hitting a police officer with his car, while heavily intoxicated and high on crack, which led to a violent, profanity-laden melee with multiple officers and an 87-day jail sentence. In the police report that TSG uncovered, Frey was actually held at a police station for no more than five hours before posting a bond of a few hundred dollars for some minor offenses. The arresting officer, according to TSG, recalled Frey as having been polite and cooperative, and said that a suspect would only be handcuffed if he was being unruly.
Both the book's hardcover and paperback publishers, Doubleday and Anchor Books, respectively, initially stood by Frey. But examination of the evidence caused the publishers to alter their stances. They released a statement noting, "When the Smoking Gun report appeared, our first response, given that we were still learning the facts of the matter, was to support our author. Since then, we have questioned him about the allegations and have sadly come to the realization that a number of facts have been altered and incidents embellished." [3] As a consequence, the publishers decided to include a publisher's note and an author's note from Frey as disclaimers to be included in future publications.[4]
The Minneapolis Star Tribune had questioned Frey's claims as early as 2003. Frey responded by saying, "I've never denied I've altered small details." link In a May 2003 interview, Frey claimed that his publisher had fact-checked his first book. He stated, "The only things I changed were aspects of people that might reveal their identity. Otherwise, it's all true." [5]
On January 11, 2006 Frey appeared on Larry King Live on CNN. He defended his work while claiming that all memoirs alter minor details for literary effect. Frey consistently referred to the reality of his addiction, which he said was the principal point of his work. Oprah Winfrey called in at the end of the show defending the essence of Frey's book and the inspiration it provided to her viewers, but said she relied on the publisher to assess the book's authenticity. Winfrey removed the references to Frey's work on the main page of her website (link), but left references in the Oprah's Book Club section earlier in the week. (link)
On January 13, 2006, it was reported that all subsequent pressings of A Million Little Pieces would include an author's note addressing concerns about the content. (link)
[edit] Live confrontation with Oprah
As more accusations against the book continued to surface, Winfrey invited Frey on the show, to find out directly from him whether he had lied to her and her viewers or had simply embellished minor details as he had convinced Larry King. Frey admitted to several of the allegations against him. He acknowledged that The Smoking Gun was "right" when the website reported that Frey had only spent "a few hours" in jail rather than the 87 days Frey claimed in his memoirs. [6]
Winfrey then brought out Frey's publisher Nan Talese to defend her decision to classify the book as a memoir, and forced Talese to admit that she had done nothing to check the book's veracity, despite the fact that her representatives had assured Winfrey's staff that the book was indeed non-fiction and described it as "brutally honest" in a press release.
On January 27, 2006, Random House issued a statement regarding the controversy. It noted that future editions of the book would contain notes from both the publisher and Frey on the text, as well as prominent notations on the cover and on their website about the additions. It also noted that future printings of the book would be delayed until these changes were made, and these additions were also being sent out promptly to booksellers for inclusion in previously shipped copies of the book.
[edit] Aftermath
On January 31, 2006, it was announced that Frey was dropped by his literary manager, Kassie Evashevski of Brillstein-Grey Entertainment over matters of trust. In an interview with Publisher's Weekly, Evashevski said that she had "never personally seen a media frenzy like this regarding a book before." Though she will no longer be representing him, when asked to reflect on Frey's future as a writer, she said, "I still believe he's a very talented writer and suspect we haven't heard the last of James Frey."
On February 1, 2006, Random House published Frey's note to the reader which will be included in future editions of the book. In the note, Frey apologized for fabricating portions of his book and for having made himself seem "tougher and more daring and more aggressive than in reality I was, or I am." He added, "People cope with adversity in many different ways, ways that are deeply personal. . . . My mistake . . . is writing about the person I created in my mind to help me cope, and not the person who went through the experience." Frey admitted that he had literary reasons for his fabrications, as well: "I wanted the stories in the book to ebb and flow, to have dramatic arcs, to have the tension that all great stories require." He also said memoirists had a right to draw upon their memories, in addition to documents, in creating their written works.[2]
On February 24, 2006, Frey's publicist revealed that Penguin imprint Riverhead had dropped out of a two book, seven figure deal with Frey. Riverhead had previously published Frey's bestselling 2005 book, My Friend Leonard.
On September 12, 2006, Frey and publisher Random House, Inc. reached a tentative legal settlement, where readers who felt that they had been defrauded by Frey's "A Million Little Pieces" would be offered a refund. In order to receive the refund, customers must submit a proof of purchase, pieces of the book itself (page 163 from the hard cover or the front cover from the paperback), and complete a sworn statement indicating that they purchased the book under the assumption that it was a memoir.[3]
[edit] References and Footnotes
[edit] External links
- James Frey's Website and Blog
- Niki Shisler's review of the controversy in the UK Guardian
- James Frey at the Internet Movie Database
- James Frey at the Notable Names Database
- Oprah Winfrey link
- Sebastian Junger on the James Frey Controversy
- Sean McDonald, James Frey's editor, on the Controversy
- The Smoking Gun (01/2006)
- Transcript of January 11, 2006 interview with Larry King regarding the Smoking Gun controversy
