Doris Kearns Goodwin Admits Plagiarism

-- Library Journal, 01/28/2002

Following the recent debacle with Stephen Ambrose confessing to using passages from other writer’s volumes in several of his books, fellow historian Doris Kearns Goodwin now admits that in 1987 she included entire passages in her biography The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys that were lifted from works by Lynn McTaggart (Kathleen Kennedy: Her Life and Times, 1983). The plagiarism came to light when McTaggart noticed the material in Goodwin’s book and contacted her. Goodwin asserts that it was a simple error, claiming she mistook McTaggart’s material for her own notes. McTaggart received credit in later editions along with monetary compensation.