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Literary forger sees memoir as act of atonement

26.08.2008 21:00 Arts - Source: cbc.ca

Lee Israel admits to forging letters by public figures such as Noel Coward, Dorothy Parker and Louise Brooks. She describes her descent into a life of crime in a new book.(Simon & Schuster/Associated Press)

New York writer Lee Israel describes her book Can You Ever Forgive Me? as a "memoir in extremis," detailing as it does her downward spiral into a life of crime.

The book's title is drawn from the letters of silent film star Louise Brooks, one of several early American public figures whose letters Israel forged and sold.

She calls the book a kind of atonement — a good read as an offering to make up for her acts of fraud.

In an interview with CBC cultural affairs show Q on Tuesday, Israel described the circumstances that pushed her into forgery.

"I was making money — not beachfront property money but good money … supporting myself, loving what I did and proud of what I did and then things stopped happening for me," Israel said.

She had enjoyed success with her biographies of journalist Dorothy Kilgallen and actress Tallulah Bankhead, but her book on designer Este Lauder was a flop. Then she put time and money into researching two more biographies, without getting a book contract.

"I was making no money, no publisher was coming forth and I ended up on welfare and food stamps and the whole nine yards. It was very rough indeed," she said.

Israel tried working temp jobs, which didn't last long or even pay enough to cover the bills.

"I took whatever I could get and I could get very little, which surprised me. I thought I could take the skills I'd developed as a biographer — research and writing, etc., even public relations, to the marketplace and it would be profitable."

Family and friends dropped away; then came the day in the early 1990s when she couldn't afford $40 for the vet to look at her sick cat.

"And so I stole a Fanny Brice letter and paid the vet $40 to do some testing," she said.

The letter by Brice, an early 20th century comedian, was from the New York Public Library. But the experience showed Israel something she could do with those skills of researching and writing — forge interesting letters.

"My method was a kind of wit and chutzpah," she said.

Israel began forging letters by public figures such as Noel Coward, Brooks and Dorothy Parker, typing them on an old typewriter and forging the signatures. She sold them successfully, through several dealers in old letters.

"I had written satire and parody before and published it … it's the ability to put myself in the skin of others, which I did with parody. I guess I have a very good ear," she said.

"I knew these people's iconographies — I grew up knowing Noel Coward, knowing Dorothy Parker. Not so much Louise Brooks, but I learned about her at the library, a bitter, terrific, brilliant woman."

Israel was not skilled at penmanship, but the signatures she created "passed muster."

She did them by placing an original letter over an old TV and placing a clean sheet on top. The TV acted as a lightbox, so she could copy the signature underneath.

"I just sort of took a breath and I wrote. I riffed on the signature," she said.

Israel was caught by a canny collector, who knew the camp references she had put in her forged Noel Coward letters would never have been spoken openly in Coward's time.

Charges were laid and Israel was up against hard times again. She was blackmailed by a dealer who offered not to testify against her in return for $5,000.

The judge was lenient and reasoned she was unlikely to reoffend. She got a five-year suspended sentence and six months of house arrest. Then she got work as a copy editor and her life turned around.

"I knew what I was doing was criminal and I was taking advantage of some people — some of them really rather nice people — but I had survival to think about," she said.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? Memoirs of a Literary Forger is published by Simon & Schuster.

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