April Fools in Literature

April the 1st has long been the platform for the practical joker with many companies and media outlets joining in with the fun in recent years, each vying to out-prank the others; but April Fools in Literature has been doing it much better for an awful lot longer.

Take a look through these examples and see what you think.

1956- The Inventor of the Period

In an article in The Saturday Review, K. Jason Sitewell wrote about the biography of Kohmar Pehriad (544-493 BC) who had travelled throughout Ancient Greece, Rome, Persia, North Africa, and Asia promoting the use of the period. He had also promoted use of the comma, which, like the period, was named after him (Kohmar).
You think that’s good? What of his son, Apos-Trophe Pehriad who allegedly invented and spread punctuation marks such as quotations and apostrophes.

1963 Cassius Clay wins

..the Ephraim Barnard Gates Award, which was given to the person “who has done the most to revitalise poetry during the last year.”. This was the claim made by The Yale Literary Magazine on April 1st of 1963.

Clay’s “mockery of the loose trochee, culminating in shocking spondees in the penultimate lines, and the final heavy line in irregular iambics” which produced “stanzas almost perfectly orchestrated.” were the reasons for this little known, and for the last century non existent, award being revived and presented to the poetic pugilist.

1977 The Sale of Wordsworth’s Cottage

Not only had it been sold but Radio Carlisle had everyone horrified by the fact that Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage had been sold to an American and was destined to be shipped to Arizona brick by brick.

1980 – Exposing the Real Sherlock

How appalling is it that Holmes’ former physician, Dr. Moore Agar had allowed papers that revealed intimate and shocking revelations of his private life, to fall into the hands of a reporter? This was the claim of The  London Times who reported that “ The most shocking revelation was that Holmes’s arch-enemy, Professor Moriarty, was merely “a figment of the detective’s imagination, distorted by stress and despair and by a burning desire to ‘punish’ Watson for what Holmes saw as his disloyalty.“
Moriarty? Fictional? Noooo….

2001 The Cybrary

London dot.com entrepreneur Lee Peters revealed his plans to store on paper, all the books that were available on the internet. Stating he wanted to offer readers a “tactile dynamic” to their experience of the internet. The Observer claimed that Lee had already been in talks with several libraries over transferring their buildings to him in order to create vast warehouses of paper based internet information.

2010 Je M’appelle Shakespeare

BBC Radio 4’s Today programme reported that, during an excavation at Shakespeare‘s former home, evidence had been uncovered proving that his mother was a French woman. The evidence came in the form of a locket, complete with an inscription in Fench and a lock of Mary Queen of Scots’ (who was in fact also French) hair and her name? Why she was Mary Arden, Ardennes perhaps?
Were the Bard’s plays also a nod to his French heritage? His play As You Like It is set in the Forest of Arden, or perhaps the Forest of Ardennes would have paid tribute to both his mother and his homeland.

2013 Fifty Shades of Sh*@

Supermarket chain Asda announced that they were going to capitalise on the erotic trilogy’s popularity whilst also making a subliminal comment on their opinion of its content by producing Fifty Shades of Grey toilet paper, with all fifty differing shades available being named after a trait of one of EL James‘ characters. The production of these literary loo rolls had received James’ blessing and she was looking forward to seeing them in shops very soon.
Kevin Merden, Asda’s “director of tissue buying,” was quoted as saying, “Much like Grey’s character all rolls are tightly wound and will take time to unravel.”

How brilliant are all of these; I think they only go to prove that if you want a really good prank, you only need to read April 1st’s Headlines.

As a bit of a bonus, below is a bit of information on the earliest mentions of April Fools in Literature.

Eloy d’Amerval

This long poem, written in 1503 by French choirmaster Eloy d’Amerval contains the term  “poisson d’Avril,” which is French for April Fool; but did he really mean April Fool in the same manner that we do, hinting that April Fools was a relatively well established festival by the turn of the 16th century? Or was it in fact the other way around, with Eloy’s phrase being adopted for the description of springtime pranksters at a later date? Etymologists agree that the latter is probably the most likely.

Nun’s Priest’s Tale

Written in 1392 Chaucer tells the tale of Chauntecler a vain and stupid cockerel who falls for the tricks of a fox, and as a consequence is almost eaten. The narrator sets the story and describes it as occurring:
When that the monthe in which the world bigan That highte March, whan God first maked man, Was complet, and passed were also Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two..
Is this a purposeful nod to April 1st being the traditional day of pranksters and tricksters? If so it is the earliest recorded reference to April Fools and is very ambiguous leaving most scholars believing that Chaucer was in  fact referring to May 3rd.