Too Many Authors THERE ARE some controversies that never quite make it to the surface. Things are hushed up, people don't talk, the matter is just too complex to develop into a full-fledged scandal. Such is the case of Craig Strete and the novel Death in the Spirit House, an imbroglio too bizarre even to permit labeling any of the players "victim" or "villain."
At first glance, things seemed simple. A science fiction writer with several books to his credit and an established if not particularly acclaimed name in the field, Strete published Death in the Spirit House as a Doubleday Foundation hardcover in 1988. The novel sank, as most do, without a trace.
Earlier this year, the novel was listed as a forthcoming paperback from Bantam Spectra, corporate sister to Doubleday. No one would have cared, except the authorship was now credited to someone else. Strete, it appeared, had stolen an entire novel. This would be unprecedented in the annals of plagiarism. Some scientific research, a couple of paragraphs, sure - but an entire novel was a real breakthrough.
San Jose State University, where Strete teaches in the creative writing program, announced an investigation. Allegations were made about other elements in the writer's past - his stories about his relationship with Jim Morrison of the rock group the Doors, blurbs and introductions to his books by such conveniently dead luminaries as Dali and Borges - that suddenly seemed less than authentic.
But when the paperback failed to appear, observers concluded that Doubleday was no longer as convinced of the plagiarism allegation as it had once been. Both Strete and the supposed real author, Ron Montana, became enmeshed in discussions with the publisher. Said a spokesman for the house last week: "We're still working towards an amiable solution."
What happened? Los Angeles writer Sheldon Teitelbaum did a thorough investigation of the matter in a piece for the L.A. Times Magazine. The article never ran, apparently because the editors considered the whole matter just too fringe for such exhaustive treatment. Teitelbaum consented, however, to share with Book Report the fruits of his labors.
The story begins in the late '70s, when Montana was a would-be novelist and screenwriter, Strete a Hollywood script doctor for low-budget films. Montana had a script, which he showed Strete; then he changed it to a novel, and showed Strete that.
Before he stopped talking, Montana contended that the next thing he knew was when he was wandering around a science fiction convention in 1988. He saw an early copy of the soon-to-be-published Spirit House. "This is my book," he told a friend. "I can't believe this guy did this."
Strete, who doesn't deny that a substantial part of the novel is by Montana, has a rather different story. He contends that he and Montana collaborated on a version of the novel that didn't work out, and that this is what Doubleday mistakenly published - instead of Strete's vastly rewritten version from which all of Montana's contributions had been eliminated. Doubleday, he says, sent the wrong manuscript to the printers. Reaction to this scenario among various sources, Teitelbaum found, ranged from a grudging belief that Doubleday might be at least slightly to blame ("It's the most incredible screw-up imaginable") to outright denial ("It's such a grandiose lie, {Strete} probably believes it").
Teitelbaum's own conclusion? He found a source in Doubleday who largely substantiated Strete's version. Accordingly, he tends to believe that the whole matter "appears to stem more from {Strete's} disheveled and disorganized approach to the business of writing and publishing than from any truly demonic intent to steal someone's work."