[7] In 1976, Rorvik was awarded an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship for investigatory reporting on the politics of cancer research worldwide.
[citation needed] Earlier in his career, he was the recipient of a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship for investigation of the effects of apartheid politics in Africa on press freedoms.
[citation needed] In In his Image, Rorvik claimed that in 1973 a wealthy businessman he dubbed "Max" had contacted him and recruited him to find scientists willing to create a clone of him.
After a few years of experimentation they managed to implant a specially prepared body cell nucleus into the cytoplast of a human ovum (a technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer) and, in turn, succeeded in implanting this egg into the uterus of a surrogate mother, a local resident called "Sparrow."
B. Lippincott, alleging that the book was a hoax, that it incorporated parts of his doctoral thesis as the theoretical basis for the cloning process, and that it had used his name without permission.
When Rorvik refused to reveal the identity of "Max" or provide proof of the existence of the clone, judge John Fullam found that the book was a "fraud and a hoax" in a pretrial ruling.