Lee Israel

Leonore Carol "Lee" Israel (December 3, 1939 – December 24, 2014) was an American author known for committing literary forgery. Her 2008 confessional autobiography Can You Ever Forgive Me? was adapted into the 2018 film of the same name starring Melissa McCarthy as Israel.

Early life and education Israel was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family. Her parents were Jack and Sylvia Israel; she also had a brother, Edward. She graduated from Midwood High School, and in 1961 from CUNY's Brooklyn College. Israel's magazine-writing career continued into the 1970s.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Israel published biographies of the actress Tallulah Bankhead, the journalist and game-show panelist Dorothy Kilgallen, and the cosmetics tycoon Estée Lauder. The Kilgallen book was well received upon its publication in 1979, and appeared on The New York Times Best Seller List. Novelist and book reviewer Rita Mae Brown told readers of The Washington Post in 1979 that Kilgallen had expressed much curiosity about Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby, despite the prevalence of show business gossip in her newspaper column. Brown added that Israel's book "deserves to be ranked with serious biography just as its subject deserves to be ranked a serious journalist" despite the possibility that some "political movements would probably find even the mention of [Kilgallen's] name a cause for hilarity."

In her 2008 memoir Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Israel claimed that in 1983, four years after the Kilgallen publication, she received an advance from Macmillan Publishing to begin a project on Estee Lauder, "about whom Macmillan wanted an unauthorized biography — warts and all. I accepted the offer though I didn't give a shit about her warts." Israel also claimed that Lauder repeatedly attempted to bribe her into dropping the project. In the book, Israel discredited Lauder's public statements that she was born into European aristocracy and attended church regularly in Palm Beach, Florida. In 1985, Lauder wrote an autobiography that her publisher timed to coincide with Israel's book.

Literary forgery By 1991, Israel's career as a writer of books and magazine articles had ended. She had tried and failed to support herself with wage labor. in his native United Kingdom or in the United States might tamper with his mail. These researchers have noted that Israel never had Coward make an explicit reference to a sexual act. They believe the sheer abundance of letters being sold by Israel aroused suspicion among autograph collectors, dealers and used bookstore owners. Other researchers believe they became suspicious of paper with anachronistic watermarks. Some researchers suspect Israel's use of very ordinary (aged) paper raised an alarm because the sophisticated letter writers were likely to have owned the finest stationery.

Israel's memoir makes clear that her name suddenly became toxic among autograph collectors, dealers and used book merchants no matter exactly how they caught on. Moreover, she criticizes the guild of autograph brokers: Before they became suspicious, they never required her to recite her prepared lies about how a letter came into her hands. Israel points out that their own code of conduct required all of them to be able to attest unquestioningly to a detailed account of the provenance of each document.

In Israel's memoir, where she cites FBI documents from her case file, her story of her encounter with the FBI differs from the account by Lowenherz.

Memoir controversy Some reviewers of Israel's memoir questioned Simon & Schuster's decision to publish it, because she would profit from the sales. One reviewer wrote, "What this is is a hilarious memoir of a self-described miscreant and her pursuit of a meal ticket. Ironically, in a joke the reader will share, by purchasing her book we all participate in buying her that meal." Upon the publication of the memoir in 2008, Naomi Hample, a New York City bookstore owner who had purchased some of Israel's forged letters in 1992, was quoted by The New York Times as saying, "I'm certainly not angry anymore, though it was an expensive and very large learning experience for me. And she's really an excellent writer. She made the letters terrific."

Death Lee Israel died in New York City on December 24, 2014, from myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells. According to a New York Times obituary, she had lived alone and had no children. In July 2015, Moore said she had exited the film due to creative differences but later confirmed that she had been fired from the project. In May 2016, it was confirmed that Melissa McCarthy would play Israel, while Marielle Heller would direct the film. Filming of Can You Ever Forgive Me? took place in New York City in early 2017.

The film held its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 19, 2018. For her portrayal of Israel, McCarthy was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.