Alexander McDuffy, a Texas antiquities dealer, and Joseph Musso, an artist and historian, are suing the authors of a book about the Alamo for allegedly counterfeiting and inflating their prices.
authors Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Legend They are Brian Borough, reporter Vanity Fair; Chris Tomlinson, newspaper columnist Houston Chronicle; and Jason Stanford, political advisor and communications officer. Random penguin house and newspaper Texas Monthly The accused were also named.
Forget the Alamo It is about the origins of the legend of the Battle of the Alamo, the ways in which the story was modified and distorted during the Jim Crow era, and how reviewers attempted to correct the actual events related to the legend of the origin of Texas. .
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“The plaintiffs in this case made one mistake: They trusted a reporter who came to them asking them about a subject they had a great deal of passion and expertise on: the authentication of artifacts that might be related to the Texas Revolution and the Battle of the Alamo,” the complaint reads. “Although that reporter had promised that he would leave the project before he would allow its authors to say anything negative about the plaintiffs or their work, the book that was eventually published… contained false statements, errors in description, and significant omissions.”
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Melinda Noss, said she and her colleagues could not comment on the matter.
In the context of the book, the authors included a section on memorabilia from the battle, and this is where McDuffie and Musso came in as resident experts on artifacts from that era.
The book was released on June 8, 2021. Prior to the book’s publication, Texas Monthly Spread excerpt That came up with the headline “Come Fake?” when it appeared in print. McDuffie allegedly filed requests for corrections with Dan Goodgame, the story’s editor, but the lawsuit says McDuffie was not satisfied with the corrections Goodgame was willing to make. The article was eventually updated to include several corrections.
The book and article have allegedly suggested that McDuffie may have added an inscription on a knife that could have belonged to William Barrett Travis, a lieutenant colonel in the Texas Army, and that he had a strong relationship with Alfred Van Fossen, an antiquities dealer with a reputation for selling questionable artifacts.
“In fact, van Vossen ended their relationship by stealing and selling a painting from McDuffie,” the complaint says.
Dan Goodgame, Editor at Texas Monthlyy, you think they made enough corrections.
Before publishing a comprehensive excerpt from a new book, Forget the AlamoIn an emailed statement, Goodgame wrote that Texas Monthly has carefully checked the facts in this excerpt. “After we published it, Alex McDuffy and Joseph Musso told us about several passages that they considered inaccurate or unfair. After further research, we corrected some factual errors in the excerpt and allowed the plaintiffs to express their views more on the other issues in dispute. We conducted our work carefully. fair, and we intend to take this case to court.”
The complaint alleges that the book severely damaged McDuffie’s business. According to the lawsuit, McDuffie made $150,000 a year prior to the book’s release. In the year after its publication, it made $98,000.
Musso is not a merchant and therefore has not faced damages to any business, but the lawsuit alleges that his character was brought into question as a result of the excerpt.
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