SC - Sweets to the sweet, have some fruitcake...

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

And it came to pass on 14 Dec 99,, that Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> Hmmm. I don't want to say it isn't, and that somebody plagiarized
> somebody's work, but it seems quite possible that there's been some
> writing on the five-fingered discount.

It's also possible that material was re-used with permission.  I would 
carefully check the fine print on the verso of the title page.
 
> What's the original date on Allen's book?

Published in 1995, according to her web page.  She runs a very well-
known cooking school, and is known as "The Queen of Irish Cooking".  
Doesn't sound like the sort of person who needs to plagiarize someone 
else's material.

> I see Amazon carries a 1998
> reprint. McCormick originally wrote his (I'm assuming he did) in 1983 or
> 84. I'm wondering because McCormick's original work was probably published
> in a run of 1000 copies or so; maybe someone decided the material was too
> good to waste on a limited-run handmade book.

Also, I see that the introduction to Allen's book was written by Regina 
Sexton, who is "Ireland's foremost food historian".  Perhaps *she* wrote 
the description of the fruitcake tradition, and it was published in both 
books?
 
> Alternately, the possibility exists McCormick figured not too many
> people would read his book anyway, I don't know.
> 
> But yes, the similarity is pretty eerie in any case.

Then again, the world *is* full of people with unbelievable chutzpah.  Not 
all that long ago, I ran across a romance novel published in 1991.  I 
looked at the blurb, and the plot seemed very familiar.  Started 
skimming the pages, and was astounded to see that passage after 
passage, page after page, was nearly identical in wording to a well-
reviewed 1999 romance that I had read a few days before.  The names 
had been changed, and there was some paraphrasing, but otherwise 
they were the same book.  I emailed the original author, and I 
understand it's in the hands of the lawyers now.  I still can't believe that 
the plagiarist thought no one would notice.

In this case, however, I suspect that Darina Allen got permission to 
reprint a slightly rewritten version of the cake description in her 
cookbook.

> Adamantius


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net
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