Orson Welles - The Rise and Fall of an American Genius

Charles Higham

ISBN 10: 0312589298 / ISBN 13: 9780312589295

Published by St Martins Press, New York, New York, U.S.A., 1985

About this Item

Painstakingly researching through thousands of documents, letters, telegrams, and diary entries, veteran biographer Charles Higham has skillfully woven together previously undisclosed information taken from Welles' private papers (that were sold to Indiana University in an attempt to raise money), studio archives, and interviews with dozens of Welles' associates. He has uncovered the story of Welles' mentally troubled older brother; his avaricious guardian, Dr. Bernstein, who became romantically involved with Orson's mother; his alcoholic father; his grandmother, who practiced black magic; his ancestors, including John Alden of Mayflower fame; his love-hate relationships with John Houseman, Alexander Korda, and Peter Bogdanovich; and his friendship with Franklin D. Roosevelt. All orders shipped protected in a box.

Seller Inventory # 000361

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Orson Welles - The Rise and Fall of an American Genius
• Publisher: St Martins Press, New York, New York, U.S.A.
• Publication Date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312589298
• ISBN 13: 9780312589295
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Photographs
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: As New
• Book Type: Book

About this title

Synopsis

This full-scale, illustrated biography provides an in-depth profile of the visionary actor/writer/director whose prodigious talents, gargantuan appetites, and personal demons contributed to a tumultuous life and career marked by brilliant accomplishments and abysmal failures.

Reviews

This is the second full-length biography of one of the most colorful and controversial figures in 20th-century show business. The other, Barbara Leaming's recent study ( LJ 8/85), had the advantage of Welles's cooperation. Not only that, but it is better written and better researched and provides a generally more reflective look at its subject. Higham's book is curiously shaped; it spends an inordinate amount of time tracing Welles's genealogy, but gives a mere 30 pages to the last 35 years of his life. Only an exceptionally comprehensive collection would require this. Thomas Wiener, ``American Film,'' Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.