Truth and Consequences

IN LATE FEBRUARY, Israel A. Horovitz's newest book--the play "Alfred the Great"--arrived at The Crimson to be reviewed. That review will have to wait until next month when the Theater Company of Boston performs the play. But now, Horovitz is in imminent danger of losing his job as an assistant professor of English at the City College of New York for lying when he was hired four years ago.

The biographical sketch on the book's jacket which said, "Mr. Horovitz studied at Harvard College..." led me to check that fact and find unexpectedly that Horovitz had never studied at the University. Inquiries at CCNY showed, nevertheless, that their records credited Horovitz with a Harvard A.B. supposedly given in 1961. Two days of inter-office telephoning at CCNY disclosed, as Horovitz himself said, "I'm not listed at Harvard because I didn't go there." And so began the final act of an "unprecedented" case of academic misrepresentation, according to Edward Quinn, chairman of the CCNY English Department.

Somehow the lie about Harvard has developed over the past few years, possibly originating when Horovitz lived in Cambridge around 1960 as an "underground student." Both City College and his publisher, Harper & Row, thought Horovitz had gone here; Boston reviewers frequently mentioned Horovitz's Harvard affiliation in their reviews; and even Harvard professors thought that Horovitz had somehow slipped through without taking any writing courses. "He was one of our great misses," said Monroe Engel, lecturer on English, sorrowfully realizing that all talent is not developed in the Harvard classroom.

One wonders just what is fact or fiction in Horovitz's plays which contain large autobiographical sections. The most startling, in light of his non-existent Harvard career, is Act I, Scene 5 of a 1971 play entitled "Dr. Hero." The setting: a university board room with an admissions committee meeting in progress. Enter the protagonist, an unloved youth named Hero who will rise to the top using his pushy, arrogant, salesman-like personality. Hero is a college applicant, appearing before the admissions committee to be judged on a ludicrous basis--the ability to name ten Dickens's titles. Hero speaks:

You know I'm rich. That I assume you all know...I've fallen into hard times [one].

And so in a rapid-fire sequence of patter, Hero unwittingly rattles off 14 Dickens's titles during a spiel about his life.

I stood between the donkey and the sun [Dombey and Son]...I turned in a full circle. My rich young and handsome friends had disappeared. Changed. In their places were cardboard cutouts. I picked the thick paper men up [Pickwick Papers].

And so on. After wowing the committee, Hero asks only a simple favor: "Give me my Ph.D." The Dean clears it through "Social Studies" and "Hero" becomes "Dr. Hero," moving through more comic sequences until in pure Horovitz fashion, Dr. Hero passes into tragic senility.

Uncovering facts about Horovitz's life can help in analyzing his plays, and, as one Harvard English professor noted, the disclosure about the false A.B. may even be a chance for Horovitz to remove the pretense from his life. But those reasons were entirely peripheral to the decision to publish an account of the author's lie. Through his lie, Horovitz deceived the public, and the wisdom of the proposed penalty, not the wisdom of revealing the truth, should be at issue. I believe that full airing of truth is in itself a paramount social good and only in exceptional circumstances far removed from this one would I withhold the facts. Perhaps Horovitz will oblige by presenting his own version of the role of truth and journalism in a future play.

I DO NOT rejoice at the disclosure, but neither do I regret it, for it gives some indication of the lapses in integrity even in people who are much admired and respected. As City College moves to fire Horovitz, they will make an even larger mistake by overreacting to a novel situation with a stock response. When Theodore L. Gross, associate dean of the humanities at CCNY, says "Our hands are tied, you can only ask for his resignation," he is taking the easy route. He is striving to convince others of CCNY's integrity instead of safeguarding the institution's integrity by making an enlightened decision. In saying, "We might turn around and rehire him without the degree," Gross implicitly admits they are just playing bureaucratic humbug. Lies like Horovitz's are despicable; they are especially stupid when they are unnecessary, as in this case where the degree played no role in his hiring four years ago. But the proposed penalty--dismissal--is like cutting off the hands of a shoplifter; the punishment does not parallel the crime. Lack of a degree has in no way diminished Horovitz's ability as a writer or teacher. Perhaps City College could solve its dilemma by publicly and freely admitting its sloppiness and reprimanding Horovitz.

At an open admissions college, firing Horovitz for lying about paper credentials is especially ludicrous. The ridiculousness of the situation is compounded considering the chancellor of the university knew Horovitz had no undergraduate degree, and granted special permission for him to enter the doctoral program. Were CCNY to act sensibly and mete out a minor punishment to Horovitz, the whole incident would disappear; as it is, the stain on Horovitz is being transferred to City College. That university is out of whack with itself.