THE phantom in Robert “Mack” McCormick’s extraordinary Biography Of A Phantom is Robert Johnson, a musician whose posthumous reputation was constructed from fragments, but the description might also apply to McCormick himself. It seems extraordinary – unbelievable – that the musicologist (who died in 2015) knew so much about Johnson, yet failed to disclose it. Having done the fieldwork, he reworked his book several times, adding false trails and questionable assertions, before losing interest. McCormick’s struggles with depression derailed the project and damaged his reputation.
