Mike McGrady papers, 1966-1970

Series II: Administrative files

Series II contains all of the administrative files related to the hoax. McGrady organized them into different groups, correspondence from the co-authors, correspondence in response to the hoax, memos to the co-authors, the advertising campaign, and newspapers articles describing the hoax. The correspondence from the co-authors concentrates on keeping the hoax a secret after the book was published. They also write about how to manage dividing the profits among 26 people, and the publicity required of everyone once they were revealed. The correspondence in response to the hoax contains letters from friends as well as the general public. Many people wrote to McGrady after the hoax was revealed, most thought that it was very clever, but there are a few letters from people who believed that the project promoted this type of literature instead of criticizing it. The memos to the co-authors are comprised of the original memo proposing the project, as well as follow-up giving more details of the project and the expectations. This series also contains a number of news clippings of the advertising as well as the stories when the hoax broke, and responses to the story in various newspapers.