Preamble

Paper Moons

By Lewis H. Lapham

Americans have a genius for the artful dodge, but also an infallible willingness to play the fool.

Playing ill or feigning madness has been a con for hundreds of years. But can a fake sickness become a real sickness?

Why would a wealthy diamond merchant in a three-thousand-dollar suit want to cheat me out of a hundred bucks’ worth of gold?

Long before Moby Dick, Herman Melville set off on a Polynesian trip that became a famous literary hoax.