Harvard author's apology not accepted

The publisher of the books Kaavya Viswanathan is accused of plagiarizing angrily dismissed yesterday her assertion that she unconsciously and accidentally duplicated numerous passages.

''We find both the responses of Little, Brown and their author . . . deeply troubling and disingenuous," said a statement from Steve Ross, senior vice president and publisher of Crown, which is a division of Random House. ''Based on the scope and character of the similarities, it is inconceivable that this was a display of youthful innocence or an unconscious or unintentional act."

Viswanathan, a 19-year-old Harvard sophomore who has a two-novel contract with Little, Brown & Co. worth $500,000, acknowledged Monday that she incorporated portions of Megan McCafferty's work in her debut novel, ''How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life," but insisted she did so inadvertently.

The similarities surfaced Sunday in a report on the Harvard Crimson's Web edition. On Monday, Little, Brown said it was investigating the allegations but generally supported Viswanathan, who issued a statement apologizing to McCafferty. It said, in part: ''I wasn't aware of how much I may have internalized Ms. McCafferty's words . . . any similarities between her words and mine were completely unintentional and unconscious." Viswanathan and Little, Brown said future editions of ''Opal Mehta" would be revised to eliminate the duplications, though it was unclear yesterday whether that would require a major rewriting of the book.

Those statements did not satisfy Crown, which published McCafferty's young-adult novels. Calling the misuse ''nothing less than an act of literary identity theft," Ross said in a statement that his lawyers have documented more than 40 instances of ''identical language and/or common scene or dialogue structure from Megan McCafferty's first two books, 'Sloppy Firsts' and 'Second Helpings.' " He demanded ''an amicable and timely resolution to this situation."

Viswanathan did not answer e-mails sent to her yesterday. Little, Brown spokeswoman Heather Rizzo said the writer was unavailable for interviews. She also said Little, Brown had no immediate reaction to the Crown statement.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Ross said the revisions to Viswanathan's book would take many months -- and ''in the meantime, the current books would still be available." Already 100,000 copies of ''Opal Mehta" are in print. Ross did not specifically demand that Little, Brown pull the books from stores, but he added: ''Our lawyers are reviewing all options."

The news of the allegations are apparently helping sales of the book. On Monday it was ranked No. 178 on Amazon.com; yesterday it was No. 68.

Ross said the plagiarism has devastated McCafferty -- whose third novel, ''Charmed Thirds," is No. 19 on The New York Times bestseller list -- and that she is ''not sleeping, not eating."

''She feels like something fundamental was taken," he said in the interview. ''We all felt it was important that we come to her defense and make clear that we support our author. The notion that this was accidental stretches credibility to the breaking point."

Meanwhile yesterday, a Harvard spokesman said an administrative board that handles student affairs would be ''gathering information" about the allegations, though he declined to call it an investigation.

''Harvard College takes any accusation of plagiarism very seriously," said Robert Mitchell, spokesman for the faculty of arts and sciences. ''However, Harvard policy does not permit us to discuss individual situations." In the case of students, the university's plagiarism rules typically would apply only to writing submitted as coursework, not outside projects.

Viswanathan's novel has received a lot of attention since arriving in stores this month, partly because of the size of the contract for a writer so young -- she was 17 when she got it -- but also for the role a book packager played in developing the plot. Alloy Entertainment, which shares the copyright for ''Opal Mehta," says it helped the author conceptualize the book but did not help with the actual writing.

David Mehegan can be reached at mehegan@globe.com.