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James Christopher Frey ( ; born September 12, 1969) is an American writer and businessman. His first two books, A Million Little Pieces (2003) and My Friend Leonard (2005), were bestsellers marketed as . Large parts of the stories were later found to be exaggerated or Literary hoax, sparking a media controversy. His 2008 novel Bright Shiny Morning was also a bestseller.
Frey is the founder and CEO of Full Fathom Five. A transmedia production company, FFF is responsible for the young adult adventure/science fiction series The Lorien Legacies of seven books written by Frey and others, under the collective pen name Pittacus Lore. Frey's first book of the series, I Am Number Four (2010), was made into a feature film by DreamWorks Pictures. He is also the CEO of NYXL, an esports organization based in New York.
Doubleday published A Million Little Pieces in April 2003, which Frey wrote and marketed as a memoir of drug addiction, crime, and an eventual journey to sobriety. Initial reception was mostly positive, with Amazon.com editors selecting it as their favorite book of that year; Barnes & Noble.com – Books: A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey, Paperback A Million Little Pieces became a bestseller, ultimately selling in excess of 4.5 million copies. In September 2005, talk show host Oprah Winfrey chose A Million Little Pieces for her monthly book club. and Frey followed it up with the sequel My Friend Leonard in 2005. The second book centered on the father-son relationship which Frey formed with his friend Leonard, from the Hazelden addiction treatment program. My Friend Leonard was published in June 2005 by Riverhead Books and became a bestseller. Significant parts of the two books, initially promoted as factual, later were revealed to have been invented by Frey (see ).
Despite the controversy, Frey signed a new three-book, seven-figure deal in late 2007 with HarperCollins to release his novel Bright Shiny Morning, published May13, 2008. Bright Shiny Morning appeared on the New York Times bestseller list and received mixed reviews. The New York Times' Janet Maslin, who had been one of Frey's detractors, gave the book a rave review.
In 2011, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible, depicted as "the last book of the Bible" was released on Good Friday, April22, 2011. Frey self-published e-editions of the book. A self-professed atheist, Frey suggested this work has reflected his attempt to write about a god that he "might actually believe in."
In August 2012, Frey published "A Moving Story," chronicling the workplace organizing of a New York moving company, on the website Libcom. In collaboration with Jocelyn Cohn, he wrote two more stories on Libcom: "Against Transparency", which questions the need for budgetary transparency and "Silencing America’s Radical History: Where Do We Go From Here?", which critiqued a panel at New School University.
On October7, 2014, Endgame: The Calling, the first book in a trilogy of novellas by Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton, was published by HarperCollins. It was turned into an augmented reality game by Google's Niantic Labs, and 20th Century Fox bought the movie rights. The premise of the novella is that aliens created human life on Earth and 12 ancient lines are destined to train a player to fight to the death for the survival of their line once Endgame begins. The book series was said to have clues, which would lead one lucky winner to a cash prize.
On November18, 2015, Frey released "Black Knight Decoded," a fictional narrative imagining a conspiracy involving the Black Knight satellite legend. Frey was credited as the writer.
In 2019, Frey came up with the story idea for the film Queen & Slim (2019), which Lena Waithe turned into a screenplay.
The website stated that Frey was never incarcerated and that he had greatly exaggerated the circumstances of a key arrest detailed in the memoir: hitting a police officer with his car, while high on Crack cocaine, which led to a violent mêlée with multiple officers and an 87-day jail sentence. In the police report that TSG uncovered, Frey was held at a police station for no more than five hours before posting a bond of a few hundred dollars for some minor offenses. The arresting officer, according to TSG, recalled Frey as having been polite and cooperative.
The book's hardcover (Doubleday) and paperback (Anchor Books) publishers initially stood by Frey, but examination of the evidence caused the publishers to alter their stances. As a consequence, the publishers decided to include a publisher's note and an author's note from Frey as disclaimers to be included in future publications.
The Star Tribune had questioned Frey's claims as early as 2003. Frey responded by saying, "I've never denied I've altered small details." In a May 2003 interview, Frey claimed that his publisher had fact-checked his first book.
On January 11, 2006, Frey appeared with his mother on Larry King Live. He defended his work, claiming that all memoirs alter minor details for literary effect. Frey consistently referred to the reality of his addiction, which he said was the principal point of his work. Oprah Winfrey called at the end of the show, defending the essence of Frey's book and the inspiration it provided to her viewers, but said she relied on the publisher to assess the book's authenticity.
Winfrey then brought out Frey's publisher Nan Talese to defend her decision to classify the book as a memoir. Talese admitted that she had done nothing to check the book's veracity, despite the fact that her representatives had assured Winfrey's staff that the book was indeed non-fiction and described it as "brutally honest" in a press release.
Several columnists weighed in on the controversy, including David Carr of the New York Times, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, Larry King, and the Washington Post's Richard Cohen.
On February 1, 2006, Random House published Frey's note to the reader, which was included in later editions of the book. In the note, Frey apologized for fabricating portions of his book. On February 24, Frey's publicist revealed that Penguin Group imprint Riverhead Books had dropped out of a two-book deal with Frey, a deal that had been valued at a purported seven figures. Riverhead previously published Frey's bestselling 2005 book My Friend Leonard.
On September 12, 2006, Frey and publisher Random House reached a tentative legal settlement, whereby readers who felt that they had been defrauded by Frey's A Million Little Pieces would be offered a refund. In order to receive the refund, customers had to submit a proof of purchase such as pieces of the book itself (page 163 from the hardcover or the front cover from the paperback) and complete a sworn statement indicating that they had purchased the book under the assumption that it was a memoir.
On July 28, 2007, at a literary convention in Texas, Nan Talese verbally attacked Oprah for misrepresenting the purpose of the interview on January 26, 2006. Just before air time, both Talese and Frey were told the topic of the show had been changed to "The James Frey Controversy".
On November 2, 2007, the Associated Press published a story about a judgment in favor of readers who felt deceived by Frey's claims of A Million Little Pieces
In May 2009, Vanity Fair reported that Winfrey had called Frey and apologized for the surprise topic change of the January 26, 2006 interview. She made a televised apology in 2011. Oprah Apologizes to James Frey. Oprah.com. May 17, 2011. Retrieved May 2013.
Following the events of Frey's Oprah appearance, South Park parodied the scandal surrounding the controversy in the episode "A Million Little Fibers".
As a member of the collective pseudonym Pittacus Lore: Lorien Legacies
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