Prince of forgers

the long version

Prince of Forgers is the true story about one of history's most audacious frauds and of the trial that exposed the most colossal literary crime ever perpetrated on learned men. Vrain-Denis Lucas was a self-educated peasant who shook the foundations of the French Academy of Sciences. As a patriot and lover of history, Lucas created over 27,000 forgeries and tried to change the course of French destiny. After fifteen years of scholarly but spurious activity, Lucas' recklessness and disdain for credibility reached new heights as he began writing autographed letters by Mary Magdalene, Cleopatra, and Alexander the Great, in modern French, and selling them for thousands of francs. Professor Rosenblum's long-awaited translation of this French forgery classic is a must-read for any collector interested in the darker side of literary history.