Kaavya Viswanathan Faces Plagiarism Accusations

Posted on April 25, 2006

Harvard undergrad and debut author Kaavya Viswanathan has a hot new book and a $500,00 book contract. But she's now facing some tough questions about plagiarism, as passages from her book, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, appear to be lifted from a 2001 coming of age novel (Sloppy Firsts) by Megan McCafferty.

Boston.com reports that Random House sent a letter raising concerns about the similarities to lawyers for Little, Brown and Co. Boston.com says McCafferty writes in an email, "After reading the book in question, and finding passages, characters, and plot points in common, I do hope this can be resolved in a manner that is fair to all of the parties involved. I am so grateful for the diligence and support of Random House's legal counsel."

Viswanathan reportedly finished her book quickly during her final months as a Harvard freshman. She wrote at a pace of about 50 pages a week. She was only 17 when she signed a 2-book deal rumored to be worth $500,000.

At the time of the deal, there was some grumbling in the literary community about the fact that Ms. Viswanathan's parents paid $10,000 to an admissions counseling service to help get her into Harvard. Then, an agent at William Morris sent her over to 17th Street Productions for some expensive book packaging services in which experienced editors helped her figure out her story. (It's not clear who paid for the book packaging services). It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but it's hard to imagine that passages identical to those appearing in an already-published book just magically appeared in Ms. Viswanathan's manuscript through no fault of her own.