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Plagiarism is widely regarded as one of the lowest offenses a writer can commit, yet it continues to occur far too often. While students may face immediate consequences like failing their courses for such misconduct, established authors who are caught may often escape punishment—provided they know how to navigate the situation.
10. Isabella Beeton
Miss Beeton’s Book of Household Management stands as one of the most influential and bestselling publications of the 19th century, despite being essentially a cookbook. The tome extends over 900 pages, with only a handful dedicated to anything other than recipes. At the end of the book, Beeton attributes sources for medical and legal topics merely to ‘a great doctor’ and a solicitor.
Later critics discovered that Isabella Beeton plagiarized nearly every recipe from other authors like Florence Nightingale and Eliza Acton. Her carelessness extended to stealing from male authors without even altering the gender in the passages. In some cases, she made small adjustments to avoid accusations of plagiarism, resulting in absurd advice—such as suggesting that pasta be boiled for 105 minutes.
The deception persisted even after Isabella Beeton passed away at just 28. Her husband, Sam Beeton, kept her death a secret and continued to republish her book with new prefaces, giving the impression that Isabella was still making updates.
9. Jayson Blair
Jayson Blair, a writer for the New York Times, was an unusually dedicated plagiarist. He began his dishonest practices while writing for his college newspaper, and in 2003, the Times discovered that 36 of his articles were either plagiarized or entirely fabricated.
The investigation began when Macarena Hernandez from the San Antonio Express-News recognized a passage in Blair's work that was copied directly from one of her own articles. The inquiry revealed that Blair wrote about locations from Cleveland to Virginia without ever visiting them, instead lifting descriptions of these places from other journalists’ discarded text. Blair's actions not only destroyed his career but also led to the downfall of two editors.
In 2004, Blair released a memoir titled Burning Down My Master’s House. Within its pages, he claimed that the scandal led him to attempt suicide, although his cocaine addiction likely played a significant role. His tone was unapologetic yet inconsistent. The book sold a dismal 1,400 copies during its opening week, despite 250,000 copies being printed.
8. Milton Berle
Milton Berle rose to fame as a comedian in the late 1940s with the advent of early television. He also gained notoriety for his rumored, exaggerated physical endowment, a topic of jokes even at his memorial service. Upon his death, he left behind filing cabinets filled with jokes written on index cards. However, it’s unlikely that Berle had written many of them himself.
Berle was very candid about his habit of stealing jokes. He even earned the nickname “The Thief of Bad Gags,” a play on “The Thief of Baghdad.” According to his collaborator Carl Reiner, not only did Berle take others' jokes, but he also enlisted his mother to do the stealing for him.
7. Saddam Hussein
While Hussein and his regime were responsible for numerous atrocities that make plagiarism seem trivial in comparison, a surprisingly significant act of plagiarism by the Iraqi government in 2003 garnered considerable attention.
Months after the UN passed a resolution requesting information on Iraq’s weapons program, the Iraqi Government released a massive 12,200-page counter-report. As US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice pointed out in a New York Times op-ed, large sections of this report were directly lifted, without attribution, from the UN’s own documents on Iraq. According to Rice, Hussein’s act of plagiarism seemed like enough justification for action against the country.
Luckily, there’s no evidence suggesting that Hussein’s romance novel Zabiba and the King was plagiarized, so fans of the book can rest easy.
6. Richard Owen
Few individuals have seen their reputation diminish as dramatically in the eyes of their colleagues during their lifetime as Richard Owen. This 19th-century biologist and naturalist is perhaps best remembered for coining the term 'dinosaur.' He was also the founder of London's Natural History Museum and is known by some as one of Charles Darwin's most vocal adversaries.
Owen was notorious for blatantly plagiarizing, regularly taking credit for others' work, including from those who were still alive and capable of contesting his claims. One of the most well-known examples was when he stole the recognition for discovering dinosaur bones from geologist Gideon Mantell. Another glaring instance was when Owen falsely claimed to be the Professor of Comparative Anatomy at the Government School of Mines, a position actually held by T.H. Huxley, leading to a lifelong rivalry. During his debates on dinosaurs, Owen would often accuse others of plagiarism to tarnish their credibility.
Ultimately, his actions led to his removal from the councils of both the Zoological and Royal Societies.
5. William Lauder
While most plagiarists aim to simply steal others' work for their own gain, Scottish schoolteacher William Lauder had a much stranger approach in 1747 concerning John Milton's 1667 masterpiece, *Paradise Lost*.
Lauder took edited versions of poems predating Milton, written by authors like Andrew Ramsey, Hugo Groutis, and Jacob Masenius. He then inserted lines from Milton’s *Paradise Lost* into Latin translations of these earlier works, ultimately claiming that Milton had plagiarized from these prior poets.
The flaw in Lauder's plot was that original copies of these older poems were available, making it easy for people to prove that he had altered them. Furthermore, Lauder's Latin was reportedly subpar, which led to clumsy and confusing translations. Although he briefly gained the backing of the renowned Samuel Johnson (the author of the first English dictionary, who had long resented the universal acclaim Milton received), Lauder's deception was soon exposed. His reputation was destroyed, and he is said to have died a poor shop assistant in the West Indies.
Nick Simmons, son of the legendary Gene Simmons of KISS, rose to fame in 2009 with his comic book, Incarnate, published by Radical Comics. However, his career quickly hit a major roadblock after accusations surfaced that he had plagiarized artwork from various online creators and even from the popular 2002 manga Bleach. The art from his comic matched those of others in terms of poses, shading, and even linework, leading to widespread controversy.
Nick Simmons' comic book venture, Incarnate, began in 2009 under Radical Comics, but it was marred by scandal. After only three issues, it was revealed that Simmons had been copying from both online artists and Bleach, the famous 2002 manga. The similarity in art was undeniable—his poses, shading, and linework were almost identical to the originals, causing public outrage.
As the son of Gene Simmons from KISS, Nick Simmons' plagiarism scandal became a media sensation, even attracting attention from outlets like CNN and the New York Times. While Simmons continued to deny any wrongdoing, Radical Comics decided to halt the series indefinitely until the controversy was resolved. As of 2014, Incarnate remains unpublished.
In 2003, amidst the political turmoil surrounding the Iraq invasion, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair sought to defend the military action. A 19-page document, later dubbed the 'Dodgy Dossier,' was presented as key evidence for justifying the invasion of Iraq.
The 'Dodgy Dossier' was riddled with unattributed content, much of it plagiarized. Some of this stolen material was taken from the doctoral thesis of California State University professor Ibrahim Al-Marashi. To make matters worse, Blair’s team even included the original document's typographical errors.
In 1998, Tony Blair’s administration had harshly criticized a political opponent for plagiarizing one of Blair's own speeches. Ironically, just a few years later, the Blair administration found itself embroiled in a plagiarism scandal of its own, shedding light on the uncomfortable nature of plagiarism in high-stakes politics.
The controversy surrounding the 'Dodgy Dossier' exposed a startling irony: even political figures who publicly denounce plagiarism may themselves be guilty of it. Plagiarism, it turns out, is a common flaw that unites us more than we often admit.
Quentin Rowan's literary career took off at the age of 19 when he was featured in the 1996 edition of Best American Poetry. By 20, he transitioned into fiction, but his stories quickly became known for one troubling characteristic: they were often comprised of text cut and pasted from other sources. Rowan continued this practice, self-publishing books using plagiarized content for years.
In 2011, after years of self-published works, Rowan's novel Assassin of Secrets was released by Little, Brown. However, it wasn’t long before a group of James Bond fans discovered the extensive plagiarism. The book was pulled from shelves within a week of its release, marking a swift fall from grace for Rowan.
After the public backlash, Rowan gave a questionable explanation for his actions. He posted an article on TheFix.com, a website focused on addiction, in which he claimed that his compulsion to plagiarize was due to his early success. He confessed that he didn’t trust his own abilities and felt he needed to rely on the work of more accomplished writers.
The minor accusation turned out to be unexpectedly beneficial for Quentin Rowan. Although his plagiarized works were pulled from publication, the prices for the remaining copies on Amazon soared to as high as $63.00 each. He even received attention in the New Yorker.
1. James A. MacKay
With a prolific career spanning over 100 books, including globally recognized biographies, James MacKay made an indelible mark on historical literature. However, his legacy took a dark turn in 1972, when he was convicted of stealing stamp proofs from the British Museum to forge counterfeit stamps. This foreshadowed his plagiarism controversy in the 1990s.
In 1997, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Robert Bruce accused MacKay of plagiarizing his biography of Alexander Graham Bell for MacKay’s own book, *Alexander Graham Bell: A Life*. MacKay had copied content from 95 percent of the pages. He even lifted the author dedication—both biographies thanked the National Geographic Society’s Bell Collection, though it had ceased to exist long before MacKay began his work on the book.
Similarly, MacKay's 1999 book *I Have Not Yet Begun to Fight: A Life of John Paul Jones* was found to contain extensive plagiarism. In response, the publisher, Atlantic Press, destroyed 7,500 copies. Despite this, MacKay continued to insist that he had never intentionally copied any material.
