Oak Knoll

In 1979, Henry Morris published a book by Timothy Barrett on Japanese papermaking entitled Nagashizuki. Morris decided to add an additional title to the list of reference books to see if anyone ever really consulted these lists. Thus the last entry was "Wilcox, Daniel. The Invention of Paper. New York: Western Publishing Co., 1971" and was a direct reference to a little children's book in Henry Morris's personal collection. Barrett was not pleased when the truth came out. SO HIS FRIEND SID BERGER PULLED A FAST ONE ON HENRY, TELLING HIM THAT HE (SID) HAD TROUBLE FINDING A COPY OF THE WILCOX BOOK UNTIL HE REALIZED THAT HENRY HAD GOTTEN THE WRONG DATE IN THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BARRET'S BOOK. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DATED A HUNDRED YEARS EARLIER. HENRY ASKED SID FOR A COPY OF THE TITLE PAGE, AND SID OBLIGED. SID CREATED A NEW TITLE PAGE AND PHOTOCOPIED IT AGAINST A REAL BOOK, MAKING IT LOOK LIKE THE REAL THING. HE SENT THE PHOTOCOPY TO HENRY. HENRY WAS AMAZED TO FIND THAT there was an actual book issued on papermaking by one Daniel Wilcox and published by Crosby Lockwood and Son in 1875. Morris immediately asked a number of his English bookseller friends to start a book search for it - all in vain. BERGER WAITED ABOUT A YEAR AND finally told HENRY that the title page had been set in type by a friend and that no such book existed. Revenge was sweet. We are offering for sale a copy of the 1975 children's book along with a photocopy of the title page of the hoax which contains comments by Henry Morris.