From PRX.

This is Studio 360. I'm Kurti Anderson.

I came across this letter in a collection with the signature of one of my favorites, the writer and wit Dorothy

Parker. And the letter is so her.

83 Norma plays Hollywood, California. Dear Joshua, Alan told me to write and apologize. I'm doing

that now while he dresses for turkey dinner with the boys across the road. I have a hangover that is a real museum piece. I'm doing that now while he dresses for turkey dinner with the boys across the road.

I have a hangover that is a real museum piece.

I'm sure that I must have said something terrible.

To save me this kind of exertion in the future, I'm thinking of having little letters run off saying,

can you ever forgive me, Dorothy?

Except that Dorothy Parker didn't actually write or sign that letter.

Lee Israel did.

Her book, called Can You Ever Forgive Me, tells the story of her years as a literary con artist,

forging letters by all sorts of famous writers and then selling them.

The memoir was just adapted into a terrific new film,

also called Can You Ever Forgive Me?

It stars Melissa McCarthy as Israel.

This one line here was particularly clever, don't you think?

It's wonderful. I love his writing. And Dorothy Parker

as well, caustic wit, you know? Costic wit is my religion. With the film now in

theaters, I wanted to revisit my conversation with the real Lee Israel. She died in 2014,

but I talked to her when her memoir came out in 2008. So that

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