Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger

Lee Israel

Aug 2008 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Before turning to the criminal life, running a onewoman forgery scam out of an Upper West Side studio shared with her tortoiseshell cat, and dodging the FBI, Lee Israel enjoyed a celebrated reputation as an author. When her writing career suddenly took a turn for the worse, she conceived of the astonishing literary scheme that fooled even many of the experts. Forging hundreds of letters from such collectible luminaries as Dorothy Parker, Noël Coward, and Lillian Hellman -- and recreating their autographs with a flourish -- Israel sold her "memorabilia" to dealers across the country, producing a collection of pitch-perfect imitations virtually indistinguishable from the voices of their real-life counterparts. Exquisitely written, with reproductions of her marvelous forgeries, Can You Ever Forgive Me? is Israel's delightful, hilarious memoir of a brilliant and audacious literary crime caper.

Ratings and reviews

Well i dont read long time but im broad an maybe i taking out that book an try to reads some stories and i just fell like to read that book because i was thinking like that books and i dont know how to telling you about that book story just fell like or maybe get to know more information about what going on or maybe i reads to nice womans hope she understanding about that book felling like its very deep inside,or maybe she knews what i wanted,well that its see you around,and Thank Agains.

the movie was sad and the book was worse

About the author

Lee Israel was the author of Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Estee Lauder: Beyond the Magic, Kilgallen, and Miss Tallulah Bankhead. She also worked as a copyeditor for Scholastic and American Express Publishing. She died in 2015.