Lost in the mists of time …

The Essential Hulk trade paperback demonstrates, as I discussed a few months ago, the importance of checking source materials.
Roy Thomas’ The All-Star Companion demonstrates the importance of taking even eyewitness accounts with a grain of salt.
The book is a detailed account of comics’ first super-hero team, the Justice Society of America, in its Golden Age run: Story synopses, creative credits, super-hero cast for each issue and various oddities and quirks: All Star Comics 24, a history of German warmongering, was probably rushed into print ahead of schedule for fear Germany would surrender before it saw print; several issues had Green Lantern redrawn over Starman because different branches of DC Comics separated for a while, putting some heroes off limits to the JSA.
(Yes, this is geeky stuff. But I’m a comics geek).
And then there’s ASC 36, “Five Drowned Men,” in which a man gets revenge for an old wrong by turning five of his college buddies evil. The story is credited to Robert Kanigher, but …
•Longtime JSA buff Jerry Bails makes an argument it was really DC scribe Gardner Fox (though he concedes it’s very speculative). Kanigher asserts rather indignantly that he never rewrote other writers’ scripts, only originals. However, in another letter, he says the writing of the issue is awful and he denies anything to do with it.
•Other people on the staff at the time give other accounts.
The point (yes, I do have one)? Even getting the scoop from the horse’s mouth doesn’t guarantee that it is, in fact, the scoop.
People forget (both Fox and fellow writer John Broome admit they can’t say with certainty if they had anything to do with the story).
People lie.
People misremember. Or selectively edit their memories.
And the thing is, there’s sometimes no way to tell which it is. Or whose memory is accurate.
This applies to many things besides the comic-book world. A friend of mine who works for a once-prominent politician told me a few years ago the “real” story of said politician’s biggest gaffe (names are concealed to avoid embarrassing anyone), based on the politician’s personal explanation. I didn’t point out to my friend that just because the politician is no longer in the limelight doesn’t mean he’s telling the truth now (nor, in fairness, that he lies).
Or take Jack Rakove’s book on the writing of the Consitution, Original Meanings. As he points out in the beginning, people want a clear, definite statement on what the First Amendment, the Full Faith and Credit clause and other parts of the Constitution mean. Historians, however, aren’t mind-readers; sometimes the best they can say is “Well, this is what Jefferson said, and this is what Madison said, but Adams said what it really meant was this …” (as I learned from a recent eHow, the full faith and credit clause is really murky).
First person accounts and quotes and memoirs are invaluable for history. But they’re not necessarily factual accounts. When researching, it helps to keep that in mind.