7 Famous Writers Who May Not Have Actually Existed

4. Maria Monk

Maria Monk is credited with writing a book with one of the lengthiest titles ever ascribed to a literary work: Awful Disclosures Of Maria Monk: As Exhibited In A Narrative Of Her Sufferings During A Residence Of Five Years As A Novice, And Two Years As A Black Nun, In The Hotel-Dieu Nunnery At Montreal. With a title like that, who needs a blurb? Monk's book was published in 1836, and claimed to expose systematic sexual abuse of nuns and the killing of the resulting children by Catholic priests in a convent in Montreal, Canada. At the time of its publication, the book did extremely well, immediately becoming a best-selling title and causing a huge amount of controversy. Some time after, however, many began to speculate that Monk €“ for which there is some evidence of a potential brain injury as a young child €“ was manipulated into playing a role, saying and doing things that she wasn't convinced herself were true for the purpose of her publisher and ghost writers. Despite the fact that Awful Disclosures Of Maria Monk has been reprinted multiple times over the years and has been translated in various languages, some scholars believe the whole thing was a hoax in order to generate profit and discredit the Catholic church, and that Monk may not have been a real nun, merely someone hired to play a public role. Scholars point to inconsistencies in Monk's claims as well as the fact that a sequel was published too.