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Publisher to stop selling second book by Jonah Lehrer

(Reuters) - A second book by U.S. writer Jonah Lehrer, who previously admitted to making up quotes from singer Bob Dylan, is being pulled from sale, its publisher said on Friday.
/ Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - A second book by U.S. writer Jonah Lehrer, who previously admitted to making up quotes from singer Bob Dylan, is being pulled from sale, its publisher said on Friday.

Lehrer's book "How We Decide" will no longer be sold after going through a fact checking process, according to publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Published in 2009, the book explores how people's minds make decisions and how those decisions can be improved.

Lehrer's first book, "Proust Was a Neuroscientist," will continue to be sold, Lori Glazer, executive director of publicity for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, said in an email.

Lehrer last summer resigned as a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine after admitting he had made up quotes from singer and songwriter Dylan in his book "Imagine: How Creativity Works." Houghton Mifflin Harcourt immediately halted shipments of the physical books and e-book sales for "Imagine."

Lehrer, a science journalist and author, became the latest nonfiction writer to admit making up material, saying in a statement that he had lied to journalist Michael Moynihan of the online publication Tablet, who had questioned Lehrer about the authenticity of quotes in a section devoted to Dylan.

The inquiry by Moynihan followed earlier allegations that Lehrer had repurposed quotes in several New Yorker blogs.

Moynihan reported on Friday, in an article on The Daily Beast, that he had provided Houghton Mifflin Harcourt with some problematic passages from "How We Decide."

Glazer's statement did not mention Moynihan.

Lehrer's literary agent could not be reached for comment on Friday evening.

Other books that have caused controversy over accuracy in recent years include James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces" and Herman Rosenblat's canceled 2009 Holocaust memoir, "Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love That Survived."

(Reporting by Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)