Jonah Lehrer, Caught Fabricating Bob Dylan Quote, Resigns from ‘New Yorker’

Share:

While the self-plagiarism charges leveled against New Yorker wunderkind Jonah Lehrer last month may have fallen into an ethical gray area, the writer’s misconduct was blatant enough in his new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, to end his career at the magazine. Following the publication today of a Tablet article proving he fabricated Bob Dylan quotes in the bestseller, Lehrer has resigned from his staff writer position. In a statement reprinted by The New York Times‘ Media Decoder blog, he confesses to having lied to Michael C. Moynihan, the author of the Tablet piece, and confirms, “The quotes in question either did not exist, were unintentional misquotations, or represented improper combinations of previously existing quotes.” Lehrer’s publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, has stopped shipping Imagine while it decides the book’s fate.