Forgers, Fakers, and Publisher-Pirates
Whether print or digital, text or image, artistic or scientific, most of the content we encounter contains accidental mistakes—ranging from typos to factual errors to errors arising from prejudicial assumptions—and a significant proportion of it also contains deliberate misinformation resulting from various forms of forgery, fakery, and piracy. Bruce Peel Special Collections is typical of special collections and rare book libraries in North American universities in the twenty-first century, housing no more or less examples of forgery, fakery, and piracy than others. Notorious forgers represented in Peel collections include Thomas Chatterton and William Henry Ireland, as well as co-conspirators Thomas J. Wise and Harry Buxton Forman. Other rare books that are not what they appear to be may have been written by persons with false identities or fake credentials or published without permission from or even consultation with the author, and are often modified in unexpected ways. Researchers are reminded to be attentive and skeptical of all sources, whether rare or common.
Getting started: Most student researchers will want to employ a series of keyword searches in the University of Alberta Library catalogue in order to find relevant print and digital materials in all U of A library locations and collections, including the Peel library. For more information about research in the Peel library, see Finding and Requesting Peel Library Materials.
Further resources: The Peel library mounted a major exhibition on this topic—Forgers, Fakers, and Publisher-Pirates (2025-2026)—and published an award-winning book/catalogue and a digital resource which offers access to digital surrogates of the books included in the exhibition. Listen to curator Linda Quirk talk about the exhibition on the New Books Network podcast episode titled Forgers, Fakers, and Publisher-Pirates (14 February 2026).
Collection Formats: 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century -- click to see other collections with this format
Nineteen-year-old William Henry Ireland created the most famous Shakespearean forgery: Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments (1796) which falsely claims to be “under the hand and seal of William Shakespeare” and includes a fake "self portrait" (PR 2950 A2 1796 folio).
Title page and frontispiece in Tales of an Empty Cabin by Wa-sha-quon-asin (Grey Owl), the false Indigenous identity of British immigrant, Archie Belaney (FC 3367.3 G84 1936b).
This edition of Agatha by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) is a forgery by Harry Buxton Forman and Thomas J. Wise, falsely attributed to the publishing house of Trübner & Co (London) and falsely dated 1869 (PR 4666 A73 1889). A competing American forgery has different errors.
It was reported that this eighteenth-century edition of a medical treatise by Celsus was bound in vellum made from human skin (R 127 C39 1722). Historically, some books were bound this way, but there are many false stories likely invented by unscrupulous book dealers. This one is bound in sheepskin.
Miguel de Luna, an interpreter in the court of Philip II of Spain, forged this account of the Muslem conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 710-780 CE claiming to have translated into Spanish an old Arabic chronicle. An act of resistance, the forgery was republished many times (DP 106 L96 1675).