To many it will doubtless seem rather late to propound the above question in connection with so famous and widely-circulated a work as “The Leavenworth Case”‘ of Miss Anna Katharine Green (now Mrs. Rohlfs). Yet it is only as late as April 17th last that we find in the Boston “Literary World” an anonymous letter containing the accusation that the plot of ” The Leavenworth Case” is a literary theft from a novel entitled “All for Her.” Touching this charge of plagiarism, we have much pleasure in laying before our readers the following letter from Mrs. Rohlfs, addressed to the editor of THE BROOKLYN MAGAZINE:
“It has not been my custom to publicly contradict the various misstatements in regard to myself and my work which from time to time have made their appearance in the newspapers; but when my integrity as an author is attacked, as it has been in the late article published in the ‘Literary World’ of April 17th, over the signature of ‘The Author of “All for Her,”‘ I feel that it is only doing justice to myself, and to the well-known and universally respected publishers who issue my works, to make a reply as decided as the attack which calls it forth.
“The accusation is one of plagiarism, and to this I answer briefly:
“First—That a writer who allows his (or is it her?) book to be issued at three different times, by three different firms, under three different names—as this writer is acknowledged to have done—has scarcely a record sufficiently clear to make it good taste, to say the least, for him or her to impeach the honor of one whose reputation, such as it is, has been honest.
“Secondly—That the points upon which he or she professes to base the charge of plagiarism against me in my novel ‘The Leavenworth Case,’ viz.: ‘The development of a link in the story by the cross-examination of a witness at a coroner’s inquest and the inverse order of the detective work,’ are such as are so common to all detective stories, wherever or by whomsoever written, that he or she might as well accuse me of plagiarism because I write detective stories at all—after him or her.
“Thirdly—The book from which I am accused of borrowing ideas is and has always been so totally unknown to me that I did not even know that such a story existed till my attention was drawn to it, some five days ago, by the sight of the article in the journal before mentioned. Upon reflection, the last-mentioned fact seems to me so unanswerable an argument against the truth of the accusation which has been made, that I shall venture not to give the dates which the author so logically demands, but sign myself without further statement or plea,
“ANNA KATHARINE GREEN-ROHLFS.”
BROOKLYN, May 10, 1886.