Laura Albert

Infobox Writer
name =Laura Victoria Albert


caption =Laura Albert in her study. Photo by :Kelly Lee Barrett
birthdate = birth date and age|1965|11|02|df=y
birthplace = New York City, United States¹
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = Author
genre = Fiction
movement =
influences =
influenced =
website =

Laura Victoria Albert (born 1965) is the author of writings credited to the fictional teenage persona of JT LeRoy, a long-running literary hoax in which LeRoy was presented to the public and publishers as a transgendered, sexually questioning, abused, former homeless drug addict and male prostitute. Albert was raised in Brooklyn, and she and her former partner Geoffrey Knoop have a young son. She has also used the names Emily Frasier and Speedie.

In a "New York" magazine article in October 2005, Stephen Beachy suggested that LeRoy was a literary hoax created by Albert. cite news | title=Who is the Real JT LeRoy? A search for the true identity of a great literary hustler | last=Beachy | first=Stephen | date=October 2005 | url=http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/features/14718/index4.html | publisher=New York] Beachy suggested that Albert was not only LeRoy's friend Emily Frasier, but also Speedie, LeRoy's street-hustling friend, as well as LeRoy himself. Albert has since confirmed that she is the writer behind the LeRoy books.
Investigation showed that the advance for LeRoy's first novel, "Sarah," was paid to Laura Albert's sister, JoAnna Albert, and that further payments to LeRoy were made to a Nevada corporation, Underdogs Inc., whose president is Carolyn F. Albert, Laura Albert's mother.

The "New York Times" published an article about Disneyland Paris with the JT LeRoy byline in the Sunday magazine T:Travel supplement in September 2005. cite news | last=LeRoy | first=JT | title=Uncle Walt, Parlez-Vous Français? | date=September 25, 2005 | publisher=New York Times T:Travel magazine | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/travel/tmagazine/25DISNEY.html] After the publication of the "New York" article, the "Times" found that expense receipts included an Air France itinerary for three people instead of the four described in the article. Employees at Disneyland Paris and two Paris hotels confirmed that the person claiming to be JT LeRoy matched photographs of Laura Albert, who told the employees she was traveling with her husband and son. She told hotel employees who thought JT LeRoy was male that she was a transsexual woman who had sex reassignment surgery three years earlier.

A 9 January 2006 article in the "New York Times" gave evidence that the role of LeRoy was played publicly by Savannah Knoop, the half-sister of Albert's partner. cite news | title=The Unmasking of JT Leroy: In Public, He's a She | last=St. John | first=Warren | publisher=New York Times | date=January 9, 2006 | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/books/08cnd-book.html] Geoffrey Knoop later stated Albert was the author of the JT LeRoy works. cite news | title=Figure in JT Leroy Case Says Partner Is Culprit | last=St. John | first=Warren | publisher=New York Times | date=February 7, 2006 | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/07/books/07lero.html?pagewanted=all] cite news | title=She is JT LeRoy
last=Boulware | first=Jack | publisher=Salon | date=March 8 2006 | url=http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/03/08/albert/] Albert explained the circumstances of JT's existence in a Fall 2006 "Paris Review" interview.cite news | title=Being JT LeRoy
last=Rich | first=Nathaniel | publisher=The Paris Review | date=Fall 2006 | url=http://www.theparisreview.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5664]

In June 2007, Albert was sued by Antidote International Films Inc. for fraud, which claims that a contract signed with JT Leroy to make a feature film of "Sarah" is null and void.] "] , [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/20/nyregion/20cnd-writer.html?ex=1339992000&en=dd65fdd75ca5b238&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss "Writer Testifies About Source of Nom de Plume"] By Alan Feuer, N.Y. Times, Published: June 20, 2007] . On June 22, 2007, Laura Albert was found guilty of fraud by a Manhattan jury, and ordered to pay $110,000 to Antidote, as well as an extra $6,500 in punitive damages.cite news | title=Jury: Novel Bought by Company Fraudulent | last=Westfeldt | first=Amy | date=June 23, 2007 | url=http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LITERARY_LAWSUIT?SITE=VACUL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT | publisher=Associated Press]

In August of 2008, the Authors Guild released an amicus brief in regards to the trial verdict, supporting Laura and opposing the jury’s decision, stating that the decision “will have negative repercussions extending into the future for many authors. The right to free speech, and the right to speak and write anonymously arerights protected by our Constitution, and the district court'sdecision which holds that Laura Albert's use of pseudonym breached theOption and Purchase Agreement, is one that will have a chilling effectupon authors wishing to exercise their right to write anonymously.” They go on to request that the court reverse the decision in regards to a breach of contract.

References

[1] http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/features/14718/index4.html

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/travel/tmagazine/25DISNEY.html

[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/books/08cnd-book.html

[4] http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/07/books/07lero.html?pagewanted=all

[5] http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/03/08/albert/

[6] http://www.theparisreview.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5664

[7] Feuer, Alan (June 15, 2007). Going to Court Over Fiction by a Fictitious Writer. New York Times

[8] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/20/nyregion/20cnd-writer.html?ex=1339992000&en=dd65fdd75ca5b238&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss "Writer Testifies About Source of Nom de Plume"] By Alan Feuer, N.Y. Times, Published: June 20, 2007

[9] http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LITERARY_LAWSUIT?SITE=VACUL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT