<p>After her writing career as a biographer was destroyed by a book that tanked, as well as her off-putting personality, Lee Israel fell into poverty and began forging letters and literary documents of prominent 20th-century authors. She was so good at slipping into the words and minds of others that some of her forgeries even made their way into an early edition of a 2007 biography on Noël Coward. But like all good career criminals, Lee's success would come to an untimely end. She would tell her story in her 2008 memoir <em>Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger</em>, which was adapted into a feature film starring Melissa McCarthy as Lee — for which she would be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.</p><p><br /></p><p>Additional narrations were provided by Sharon Hyland. Theme music is credited to Wendy Marcini, Elvin Vanguard, and Jules Gaia.</p><p><br /></p><p>Instagram: <a href="https://publish.blubrry.com/s-3563083/episodes/e-132875359/edit/instagram.com/literaryscandals">@literaryscandals</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Selected bibliography:</p><p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);">• </span><em style="color:rgb(0,0,0);">Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger </em><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);">by Lee Israel</span></p><p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);">• "</span><a href="https://www.npr.org/2008/09/10/94461486/how-a-successful-biographer-became-a-forger" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);">How A Successful Biographer Became A Forger</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);">," </span><em style="color:rgb(0,0,0);">NPR<span class="ql-cursor"></span></em></p><p><br /></p>