Literary Forgery

Our history is our record, the only true link we have to our past. Deep within contains a detailed story, narrating the tales of those who came before us. These stories account for what once was and help us to understand who we are as a people. We have relied on these written documents for centuries to chronicle our lives, our customs, and religious beliefs.

In the early 1980's a man named Mark William Hofmann put his 'mark' so distinctly on our history by way of forging it, that we may never know the full extent of his actions. Mark Hofmann's extreme motives (including murder), his varying talents and skills as a master manipulator, and his quiet and unassuming personality that has helped to create the most skilled forger of all time.

Mark Hofmann was a man of many talents, including being a well-respected historical documents dealer. He was known as a quiet spoken family man and a collector of antiquarian history. Yet what motives led this intelligent man to playing a high stakes game where he intentionally created some of most controversial documents in history? According to Simon Worrall's book, The Poet and the Murderer "Forgeries are created because of money, greed, misplaced patriotism, hatred of authority or religion, a longing for social prestige, or simply a need to reinvent oneself to others" (Worrall 144). Indeed Hofmann suffered from most, if not all of these motives. He was a fake from the very beginning.

As a child Hofmann had little interest in his Mormon faith. Instead he was interested in magic, learning to cheat at card tricks, and dabbling in chemistry-even creating gunpowder explosives. At the age of fourteen he made a discovery that would forever cement his interests in forgery. After teaching himself electroplating (a process that coats a thin layer of metal over a coin) he managed to fake a mintmark and sell it to a local dealer for a substantial amount of money (Worrall 92). The coin was so impressive that even the Treasury Department authenticated it. Hofmann lost his faith in Mormonism and instead found his faith in forgery when he saw the power he could possess by fooling even the government. Interviewed in prison (years later), Hofmann rationalized his feat: "If the Treasury Department pronounced it as genuine then it's genuine by definition" (Hofmann Interview). In the same interview (when discussing his faith) he claimed that he had lost his faith in the church at fourteen claiming that faith "is not what is genuine, but what people believe is genuine" (Hofmann Interview). This was a common response for Hofmann. His comment later became his coined phrase; repeatedly he rationalized his crimes with this simple-minded excuse. Hofmann was able to rationalize just about anything he did. He may even have been a pathological liar.

In college he began to despise his own Mormon belief and he faked his allegiance to the religion to not disappoint him parents. He believed the book of Mormon was purely fiction. "This generated enormous internal confusion and a deep-seated anger at his parents and the culture they represented. That anger was only intensified when at the age of nineteen, he was forced to go on a mission trip to England to convert other people to a faith he believed as a lie" (Worrall 95). Hofmann continually faked his devotion to Mormon ceremonies and outwardly appeared to behave like a believer. Inside he was filled with anger and hatred toward a religion that he thought was just plain stupid. Hofmann believed that faith was fallacy and people who believed were weak.

While in England, Hofmann began to intensely study the History of the Mormon religion. The Mormon religion is unique among other religions of the world- it is as American made as apple pie. It dates back to the 1830's with its founder, Joseph Smith a poor illiterate man from Up State NY. According to church doctrine, an angel named Maroni presented Joseph Smith with gold tablets that he translated into the Book of Mormon while wearing a pair of magic goggles. Nonbelievers have jokingly referred to Mormonism as 'a cross between Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and the most long-winded sermon ever given, complete with over 2,000 phrases of 'and it came to pass'" (Worrall 83). Yet, Mormonism severely lacks evidence to support Joseph Smith's findings. Despite this, the Mormon faith is similar to other religions in that it requires followers to have a strong abiding faith in its beliefs, despite a lack of evidence in its credibility. Hofmann's motives were evil right to his very core. He systematically preyed on the Mormon Church's weaknesses and in many ways he blackmailed the church to buy his forgeries. How could one man possibly continue to 'find' such shocking and potentially damaging documents that were never known to have existed previously? Did the church elders know they were being blackmailed? Why did they continue to purchase the documents and hide them away secretively in the church vault? The documents Hofmann provided to the church possibly threatened to undermine the Mormon faith, which was one of the world's fastest growing and most prosperous religious organizations (Jarvik). "As usual Mark Hofmann was not just interested in making money. He wanted to embarrass and humiliate the Mormon Church by proving that they were actively involved in covering up Mormon History" (Worrall 172). With this newfound knowledge Hofmann saw a weakness, an opening, an opportunity to manipulate and deceive. He had found a way to hurt the Mormon Church...

One of the most damaging documents Hofmann forged to sell to the Church was called The White Salamander Letter. The letter claimed that Joseph Smith (church founder) was involved in magic, the occult, and treasure digging. In addition to this, the letter also contradicted the church's version of Joseph Smith's discovery of the golden plates. All in all, the discovery of the Salamander Letter had the potential of making the church's vague history appear even shakier simply because "The Mormon belief is dependent on it's history and by cleverly exploiting questions that historians were independently raising about the early church, Hofmann traded on the leaders' fears that the original accounts were in peril" (Hardy/Turley). When asked what the purpose was for coming up with the Salamander Letter, Hofmann replied that it was money. "It's a controversial type document, therefore it would be valuable, and it was also again somewhat of an experience to see the Church's reaction....that always interested me" (Interview). Hofmann said that he liked controlling the direction of Mormon History (Interview). Ronald W. Walker, an associate