John Revelstoke Rathom
John Revelstoke Rathom was many things: a famous Australian-American journalist, managing editor of the Providence Journal in Rhode Island, member of the executive committee of the Associated Press, even a confidant of president Woodrow Wilson. He was also a government informant, a liar, and an imposter. In fact, “John Revelstoke Rathom” was almost entirely made up. In “The Imposter's War,” Mark Arsenault details this larger-than-life character who claimed to run an anti-German spy ring out of the Journal’s offices during the runup to World War I. The Journal quickly “became the go-to source for German plots and intrigue” with scoops “published simultaneously in other newspapers, most notably the New York Times.” In his determination to convince readers that Germany was already at war with the United States, Rathom exaggerated facts, invented details, and sold out sources. Arsenault writes that “in the 1970s two former Providence Journal editors fell into the Rathom vortex while working on a company history project. They concluded that much of Rathom’s biography was fake.” In his book, Arsenault reveals that Rathom’s real name was John Pulver Solomon and details his journey from Australia to Hong Kong to Vancouver, where Solomon adopted the name John Revelstoke Rathom.