Neal Bowers is a poet — he has made a life of writing and has even been published in prominent magazines, including Harper’s and The New Yorker. He never expected to one day be thought of as an expert on plagiarism.

“Some guy I’d never heard of was taking my poems from journals [I was published in],” said Bowers, distinguished professor of English. “It made me angry, so I thought I’d do a little investigating.”

The man had been using a pseudonym, which at first made him impossible to track down, Bowers said. After having no luck, he and his wife hired a lawyer and began to take the matter seriously.

His wife pressed the situation, calling on the help of a private investigator to search for the identity of the plagiarist. The investigator eventually found a suspect, and Bowers discovered more than he had bargained for.

“He went to prison for child molestation,” Bowers said. “He lost his teaching license. It was kind of creepy.”

The suspected plagiarist was in his mid-40s, Bowers said. He had a previous criminal record, but would not admit to this particular crime.

“If you imagine your reader, you don’t think it’s going to be a convict,” Bowers said. “I thought he would acknowledge it was wrong. We knew everything about him — I just wanted him to confess and say he wouldn’t do it again.”

Bowers’ suspect had plagiarized other poets as well, but when Bowers contacted them to tell them of the happenings, he said the other poets didn’t seem to care, as the plagiarism had only taken place in one instance for most.

“Editors would get kind of angry with me,” Bowers said. “It was also kind of hard to get sympathy from other poets. They asked, ‘Why are you making such a big deal of this?’ It was really kind of wounding to have friends shrug it off.”

Bowers said in the world of poetry, there is no real punishment for plagiarism, as there is in journalism and commercial novel writing. Many of his colleagues didn’t want to be involved and wondered why he was so persistent. Bowers said he couldn’t forget about the incident as easily as his friends. He wrote an essay about it for The American Scholar, which was then published as a feature in The New York Times. From there, the public responded with a force he said he could not have expected.

After being told by friends and editors his story could be lengthened into book form, Bowers decided he would give it a try.

“The plagiarism story has taken on a life of its own,” Bowers said. “I thought the essay would be the end of the whole business.”

The book, “Words for the Taking,” is now used in high school and university classes around the world, Bowers said. The story has given students a real-life perspective on what actually happens when people take a writer’s words for their own.

“I know the book has made a lot of difference for people,” Bowers said. “It’s a book that kind of overshadowed my poetry.”

“I got pulled out into the public,” Bowers said. “The topic was thrust upon me.”

He said the public considers him knowledgeable of the issue, and often call upon his help when dealing with issues. He is, however, reluctant to call himself anything but a writer.

“I’ve become a sort of authority on plagiarism,” Bowers said. “But I don’t know that I’m the final authority.”