jt leroy is a girl

Shock waves roiled the literary world Monday when new evidence surfaced that finally could prove San Francisco author JT LeRoy is not who he says he is. Instead of a former male hooker from a hardscrabble background, he apparently is a 40-year-old woman with middle-class roots.

LeRoy, who has cultivated celebrity and publishing industry friendships with the likes of Courtney Love, Winona Ryder, Madonna, Dave Eggers and Michael Chabon, appears to have pulled off the greatest literary hoax in a generation.

Since 2000, LeRoy has been gaining fame for his fictional depictions of a 12-year-old boy lured into a life of truck-stop prostitution by his own mother. His first book, "Sarah," was shelved in bookstores under "fiction" but was marketed as semi-autobiographical. The author's life story was key to the success of the book.

As the story went, LeRoy was saved from the streets of San Francisco by a woman named Laura Albert and her husband, Geoffrey Knoop. The trio became a family, and, with the help of a therapist, LeRoy was able to channel his traumatic life experiences, including his infection with HIV, into writing that was raw and powerful.

Over the past five years, as LeRoy's readership grew, his shyness became part of the legend. On the rare occasions when he would appear in public, LeRoy wore a woman's blond wig and sunglasses. LeRoy's gender issues were well-known: He identified himself as gay and spoke in interviews of his desire for a sex-change operation.

But according to a story Monday in the New York Times by Warren St. John, "JT LeRoy" is actually a family project. The person who portrays LeRoy in public is Savannah Knoop, Geoffrey Knoop's half sister, who is in her mid-20s. The person who writes the work, St. John argued, is Laura Albert, originally from Brooklyn.

The theory that LeRoy is Albert's creation was first advanced by San Francisco author Stephen Beachy in an article written originally for -- but never published by -- the San Francisco Bay Guardian. That story ran in New York Magazine in October.

"I am thrilled that the New York Times has answered the biggest remaining mystery in the JT LeRoy saga, the identity of the actor who plays the part," Beachy told The Chronicle by e-mail Monday.

"There is no longer any doubt that 'JT LeRoy' is a fake identity created by Laura Albert and her husband, Geoffrey Knoop, maintained with the help of Geoffrey's sister, Savannah," Beachy said.

On Monday afternoon, a Chronicle reporter rang the bell of a dingy, cream-colored Victorian apartment house on Larkin Street that is the residence of Laura Albert and Geoffrey Knoop, according to an online directory. A woman answered but refused to open the door. Conducting a conversation from the landing of the top of the interior stairs, where she could not be seen, the woman, who did not identify herself, told the reporter that Albert and Knoop had moved to Mendocino.

"You should get them, because they must be brought down," the woman said.

The revelations about LeRoy may not seem earth-shattering to those outside the literary world. Well-known cultural figures, such as Andy Warhol, have often toyed with issues of gender and identity. And, like Warhol, LeRoy pulled into his orbit celebrities and influential people who gave him support and publicity.

"While I am not a fan of JT's work, Laura Albert's is fascinating," Beachy said. "The hoax was brilliant and complex, and her understanding of human nature is obviously intense."

Beachy added: "The hoax needed to be revealed in order for us to ask the really important questions -- about what we want to believe and why, what we project onto 'outsiders,' and the magical aura we grant celebrities."

Over the years, influential San Franciscans reportedly have helped LeRoy with his work, including novelist and publisher Dave Eggers, Chronicle Datebook editor David Wiegand, Michael Ray of Zoetrope magazine and authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman.

"If the Times article is correct, then I was fooled by the JT LeRoy persona as much as anyone," Eggers told The Chronicle via e-mail Monday.

"I actually edited a story, 'Harold's End,' by LeRoy, and spent hours on the phone -- with someone -- going through a typical line-edit," Eggers said.

"I'm disappointed that I was misled. I'm still pretty confused by all this, but I do think, whatever the outcome, that the first two books are very well written," he added.

LeRoy's San Francisco publisher -- Ron Turner of Last Gasp -- remains unfazed by the New York Times piece.
"There's no change in our plans," said Turner, who will bring out LeRoy's next novel, "Labour," this spring.

"If it was a hoax, hey, it was a great hoax. They're still great books. I don't care who wrote them as long as they're really good reads," Turner said.

Author Armistead Maupin, whose novel "The Night Listener" was based on his experience with a literary pretender, has strong feelings on the subject.

"A lot of people argue that such frauds cause no harm and are a great joke played on the literary establishment," he said by telephone Monday.

"But in fact there's something very callous about using AIDS and an abusive childhood as a way of getting sympathy and support," Maupin said, adding, "I'm surprised that people were bamboozled as long as they were."

Lemony Snicket -- the San Francisco author also known as Daniel Handler -- was bemused by the fuss.
"From the moment I first heard of him, there was speculation about his identity," he said. "So it doesn't surprise me that there continues to be speculation about his identity."

Handler believes there is an artist -- never mind who -- behind the work. "LeRoy's work is very much of a piece -- it's consistent," he said.

"The only question is, did the person who wrote these things have as colorful a history as some people seem to believe?" Handler asked. "That's a question you could ask about Jack London."