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Jonah Lehrer, accused of fabricating quotes, resigns from The New Yorker

Just a month after Jonah Lehrer apologized for repurposing his own material in various publications, The New Yorker staff writer has resigned from the magazine, in response to accusations that he fabricated quotes in his best-selling book, Imagine: The Science of Creativity.

Michael Moynihan, a writer at the online news website Tablet, questioned Lehrer about the source of several quotes from musician Bob Dylan that appear in Imagine. Moynihan writes that Lehrer “stonewalled, misled and, eventually, outright lied to me” about the material’s origins.

In a statement published by The New York Times, Lehrer says:

Three weeks ago, I received an email from journalist Michael Moynihan asking about Bob Dylan quotes in my book Imagine. The quotes in question either did not exist, were unintentional misquotations, or represented improper combinations of previously existing quotes. But I told Mr. Moynihan that they were from archival interview footage provided to me by Dylan’s representatives. This was a lie spoken in a moment of panic. When Mr. Moynihan followed up, I continued to lie, and say things I should not have said.

The lies are over now. I understand the gravity of my position. I want to apologize to everyone I have let down, especially my editors and readers. I also owe a sincere apology to Mr. Moynihan. I will do my best to correct the record and ensure that my misquotations and mistakes are fixed. I have resigned my position as staff writer at The New Yorker.

According to the Times, a spokesperson for Lehrer’s U.S. publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, says the company “will halt shipment of physical copies of the book and is taking the e-book off the market.” In Canada, Imagine is published by Allen Lane, a non-fiction imprint at Penguin Canada.

In addition to his work at The New Yorker, Lehrer is a contributing editor at Wired, Scientific American Mind, and the National Public Radio program RadioLab.