
S5E28 - Can You Ever Forgive Me? The Literary Forgeries of Lee Israel
Published: September 29, 2025
Duration: 45:05
For a brief, dazzling moment in early 1990s New York, biographer Lee Israel became one of the most notorious literary forgers of all time. Out of money, out of friends, and with a sick cat to care for, Israel turned her biographer’s research skills and her sharp wit toward a new craft: fabricating letters from Dorothy Parker, Noël Coward, Louise Brooks, and more. Her forgeries fooled collectors, corrupted archives and spread into the market as “authentic” pieces of history.
"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that ma...
"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that ma...