Hmm …

… The Genius Card – Lingua Franca - Blogs - The Chronicle of Higher Education. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Where Mitchell readers and scholars knew about Mr. Flood, Kunkel reveals that at least one other profile subject (Cockeye Johnny Nikanov, king of the gypsies) and in all likelihood one of the main characters in another classic Mitchell piece, “The Mohawks in High Steel,” were composites as well. They were never acknowledged as such. In addition, Kunkel provides evidence that Mitchell employed considerable poetic license in the words he attributed to his (noncomposite) subjects — specifically in his 1956 New Yorker piece, “Mr. Hunter’s Grave.”

Hard to know how to take this. The work involves fabrication, but makes for good reading? And it's OK to fabricate if you're a genius? Guess it's best to leave any judgment to the individual reader.