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Lee Israel

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Lee Israel


Born
in New York, The United States
December 03, 1939

Died
December 24, 2014

Genre
Biography, Memoir


Leonore Carol "Lee" Israel was an American author, now better known for her literary forgeries than for her two very popular biographies.

She began a career as a freelance writer in the 1960s. Her profile of Katharine Hepburn ran in the November 1967 issue of Esquire. In the 1970s and 1980s she wrote biographies of actress Tallulah Bankhead, journalist and game show panelist Dorothy Kilgallen and cosmetics tycoon Estée Lauder. The biography of Kilgallen appeared on The New York Times Best Sellers List but the Estée Lauder bio was far less successful when it was published in the fall of 1985, in direct competition with Estée Lauder's own memoir.

To make money, Israel began forging a number of letters, estimated to be over 400, by deceased wr ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.27 · 4,588 ratings · 842 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors
Can You Ever Forgive Me?: M...
3.24 avg rating — 4,333 ratings — published 2008 — 17 editions
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Kilgallen
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 138 ratings — published 1979 — 6 editions
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Miss Tallulah Bankhead
3.86 avg rating — 85 ratings — published 1972 — 16 editions
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Estee Lauder: Beyond the Magic
3.09 avg rating — 32 ratings — published 1985 — 5 editions
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Quotes by Lee Israel  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“I was going on trial as people were still making a great deal of money from the fruits of my labor.”
― Lee Israel, Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger
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“I had a brother with whom I had never had much in common.”
― Lee Israel
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“When one cause of worry exits my skull it is replaced immediately by another. They meet shoulder to shoulder, one entering, the other exiting the cave leading to my tympanic membrane.”
― Lee Israel
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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Book Nook Cafe: Deb in the City 161 103 Jul 12, 2010 05:49AM  
Comfort Reads: Favorite Memoirs and Biographies 207 192 Mar 30, 2012 09:22AM  
The Novella Club: favorite short non-fiction books 28 88 Aug 17, 2014 08:51AM  
Books2Movies Club: 2018 - Currently around the world 19 51 Jan 06, 2019 01:45AM  
Retro Chapter Chi...: Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Oct 2018 USA) 3 17 Feb 11, 2019 05:18AM  
The Seasonal Read...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Completed Tasks: PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ANY POST IN THIS THREAD 3799 355 Feb 28, 2019 09:00PM  
Reading with Style: This topic has been closed to new comments. WI 18-19 Completed Tasks 976 80 Feb 28, 2019 09:01PM