Memoir Admits Literary Forgeries

Lee Israel, New York editor and biographer, has a memoir called Can You Ever Forgive Me?, set for release next month. The memoir is the story of the two years of her life she spent as a letter and autograph forger while short on cash as a writer. While she made her living out of lies, she claims that her book is entirely factual in its description of over 400 forgeries.

 Israel was finally caught in her life of crime when book traders became suspicious and involved the FBI. She is still proud of the number of deceptions she succeeded in getting away with. Some booksellers who lost thousands on her forgeries are angry over their losses but even still admit that her forgeries were pretty creative and seemed genuinely accurate. The title of her book comes from a line she penned in one of her fake letters from Dorothy Parker.

Other writers who used her falsified letters in editions of their books are taking them out for coming editions. Of these, according to The New York Times, Israel says, “Those letters never misrepresented any large truth…They were fun, and nobody got hurt, and everybody made money.” This is her view on the matter, in spite of the fact of several booksellers losing quite a bit over the deals.