The English novel was born in forgery. Robinson Crusoe never existed. Neither did Lemuel Gulliver or Pamela Andrews. Yet they all left detailed accounts of their lives and adventures, thanks to the intercessions of Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift and Samuel Richardson. As readers grew more sophisticated, authors in England and the U.S. felt less obliged to offer fiction in the guise of fact. But the tradition of the imaginary autobiography has continued to attract notable writers from Dickens and Twain to Salinger and Bellow. In the right hands, the old trick of the sham document can still inspire belief and wonder....
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