Publisher Cancels Book Deal With Harvard Plagiarist

Posted on May 2, 2006

AP / Chitose Suzuki

Kaavya Viswanathan, a Harvard University student, in front of her dormitory at the Cambridge, Mass., university on Monday, April 10. The 19-year-old signed a hefty two-book deal with Little, Brown and Co. when she was 17.  On Tuesday the publisher of the sophomore’s debut novel reacted to allegations of plagiarism. The Harvard Crimson’s website, on Sunday, April 23, first reported similarities between Viswanathan’s book and two novels by Megan F. McCafferty.

In the wake of even more plagiarism allegations against the Ivy League sophomore, publisher Little, Brown and Co. has canceled her $500,000 two-book deal and permanently pulled copies of her book from store shelves.

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AP:

A Harvard University student’s “chick lit” novel has been permanently withdrawn and her two-book deal canceled, publisher Little, Brown and Co. announced Tuesday, as allegations of literary borrowing proliferated against Kaavya Viswanathan’s “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life.”

“Little, Brown and Company will not be publishing a revised edition of ‘How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life’ by Kaavya Viswanathan, nor will we publish the second book under contract,” Michael Pietsch, Little Brown’s senior vice president and publisher, said in a statement.

Little, Brown, which had initially said the book would be revised, declined to comment on whether Viswanathan would have to return her reported six-figure advance. Tuesday’s decision caps a stunning downfall for the 19-year-old Viswanathan, a Harvard sophomore whose novel came out in March to widespread attention.

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