The True Story of Lee Israel and the Literary Forgeries in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

Lee Israel came late to a life of crime. Though her forgeries of letters from luminaries like Louise Brooks, Dorothy Parker, and Ernest Hemingway would ultimately become a far more enduring legacy than her work as a biographer, the criminal enterprise that inspired the upcoming film Can You Ever Forgive Me? (out October 19) comprised a mere three years of the author’s life…

The gambit lasted until David H. Lowenherz, an autograph dealer in New York, discovered news that the missive from Ernest Hemingway to Norman Cousins that he had purchased was in fact part of Columbia University’s collection. He got in contact with the university and together they discovered the forgery. “I said, ‘Is there any way you can tell who had recent access to this letter?’” he told The New York Times. “He came back and said: ‘We have this card. It’s signed by Lee Israel.'” Read More