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Clifford Irving

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Clifford Michael Irving (November 5, 1930 – December 19, 2017) was an American novelist and investigative reporter. Although he published 20 novels, he is best known for an "autobiography" allegedly written as told to Irving by billionaire recluse Howard Hughes. The fictional work was to have been published in 1972. After Hughes denounced him and sued the publisher, McGraw-Hill, Irving and his collaborators confessed to the hoax. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, of which he served 17 months.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Irving later wrote The Hoax (1981), his account of events surrounding the development and sale of the fake autobiography. The book was adapted as a 2006 biopic of the same name starring Richard Gere as Clifford Irving. He continued to write and publish books, including his prison journal.

Early life and writing careerEdit

Irving grew up in New York City, the son of Jay Irving, a Collier's cover artist and the creator of the syndicated comic strip Pottsy, and his wife, Dorothy.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After graduating in 1947 from Manhattan's selective High School of Music and Art, Irving attended Cornell University. He graduated with honors in English.

Working as a copy boy at The New York Times, Irving wrote his first novel, On a Darkling Plain (1956), published by Putnam.Template:Citation needed

Irving completed his second novel, The Losers (1958), while traveling in Europe. His third novel, The Valley (1960), is a mythic Western saga, published by McGraw-Hill.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

After returning to Ibiza, Irving became friendly with Hungarian art forger Elmyr de Hory. The painter asked him to write a biography, which was published as Fake! (1969). Irving and de Hory are both featured in Orson Welles's film documentary, F for Fake (1974), which was inspired by both Fake! and the Hughes autobiography affair.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Personal lifeEdit

His first wife was Nina Wilcox. Their marriage was annulled in 1952.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Later, on the Spanish island of Ibiza, he met an Englishwoman, Claire Lydon; they married in 1958 and moved to California. She died the following year at Big Sur in an automobile accident on May 8, 1959.<ref name="Time">"The Fabulous Hoax of Clifford Irving". Time, February 21, 1972.</ref>

In 1962, after a year spent traveling around the world and living in a houseboat in Kashmir, Irving moved back to Ibiza<ref name="Time" /> with his third wife, Fay Desch, an English photographic model, and their newborn son, Josh. This marriage ended in divorce. In 1967, Irving married Swiss/German artist Edith Sommer. They had two sons, John Edmond (aka "Nedsky") and Barnaby.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> He reportedly had a lengthy affair in the 1970s with the Danish actress and singer Nina van Pallandt.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Irving later married English author Maureen "Moish" Earl. From 1984 to 1998 they lived mainly in the mountain town of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After divorcing Earl, Irving married an Australian woman, Julie Schall.<ref name=":0" />

Fake autobiography of Howard HughesEdit

By 1958, millionaire Howard Hughes had become a recluse.<ref name="obit">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1970, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Irving met with Richard Suskind, a longtime friend who was an author of children's books.<ref name="indictment">Template:Cite news</ref> They conceived a scheme to write Hughes's purported "autobiography": Irving and Suskind believed that, because Hughes had completely withdrawn from public life, he would never draw attention by denouncing such a book or filing a lawsuit for libel.<ref name="indictment" />

Suskind took on the work of research in news archives.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Irving started by enlisting the aid of artist and writer friends on Ibiza in order to forge letters in Hughes's own hand, imitating authentic letters they had seen displayed in Newsweek magazine.<ref name="Time"/>

Irving contacted his publisher, McGraw-Hill, and said that Hughes had corresponded with him,<ref name="obit" /> saying he admired Irving's book about de Hory,<ref name="obit" /> and that Hughes had expressed interest in having Irving ghost write the millionaire's autobiography.<ref name="indictment" />

The McGraw-Hill editors invited Irving to New York, where the publishers drafted contracts among Hughes, Irving, and the company, with Irving and his friends forging Hughes' signatures.<ref name="indictment" /> McGraw-Hill paid an advance of US$100,000, with an additional US$400,000 to be paid to Hughes;<ref name="indictment" /> Irving later bargained the sum up to US$765,000.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> McGraw-Hill paid by checks made out to "H. R. Hughes",<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> which Irving's Swiss wife Edith deposited to a Swiss bank account which she had opened under the name of "Helga R. Hughes".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

The investigationEdit

Learning of the planned book, representatives of Hughes' companies expressed doubts about its authenticity.<ref name="hearing">Template:Cite news</ref> Frank McCulloch, known for years as the last journalist to interview Hughes, had received an angry call from someone claiming to be Hughes, but after he read the Irving manuscript, became convinced that the book was genuine.<ref name="Mick Brown">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

McGraw-Hill and Life magazine, which had paid to publish excerpts of the book, continued to support Irving.<ref name="hearing" /> Osborn Associates, a firm of handwriting experts, further declared the writing samples were authentic.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> While Irving had to submit to a lie-detector test, this indicated inconsistencies but no lies.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On January 7, 1972, Hughes arranged a telephone conference with seven journalists whose end of the conversation was televised: in this conference, Hughes claimed that he had never even met Irving, much less corresponded with him.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Irving claimed the voice on the phone was an imposter, but it subsequently became clear that Irving was the fraud.<ref name="Mick Brown"/>

Hughes' lawyer, Chester Davis, immediately filed suit against McGraw-Hill, Life, Clifford Irving, and Dell Publications,<ref name="hearing" /> while Swiss authorities investigated the "Helga R. Hughes" bank account:<ref name="helga">Template:Cite news</ref> the Irvings by this time had returned to their home on the Balearic island of Ibiza. After the Swiss bank identified Edith Irving as the depositor of the funds, the hoax was revealed.Template:Citation needed

Confession and trialEdit

The Irvings confessed on January 28, 1972.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They and Suskind were indicted for "conspiracy to defraud through use of the mails" and pleaded guilty on June 16.<ref name="hr">Template:Cite news</ref> Irving spent 17 months in prison.<ref name="hr" /> He voluntarily returned the US$765,000 advance to his publishers.<ref name="hr" /> Edith, a.k.a. "Helga", served prison sentences in the United States and in Switzerland.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

FilmEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} In July 2005, filming began in Puerto Rico and New York on The Hoax, starring Richard Gere as Irving, Alfred Molina as Suskind, and Marcia Gay Harden as Edith. On March 6, 2007, Hyperion reissued Clifford Irving's The Hoax in a movie tie-in edition. The film, directed by Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallström, opened on April 6, 2007, with a DVD release following on October 16.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The majority of reviews were favorable.<ref name="rt">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Irving characterized the film as a clichéd distortion of the story and "a hoax about a hoax". He described the film's portrayals of Suskind, Edith Irving and himself as "absurd even more than inaccurate". He noted that the film was not true to his account, adding events that had not taken place.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As the author of the source book, Irving is credited as a writer for the film,<ref name="aspen">Template:Cite news</ref> but he had himself removed from credit as technical adviser.<ref name="aspen" />

In spring 2012, the movie rights to Irving's nonfiction book, Fake!, were optioned by Steve Golin and Anonymous Content LLP.<ref name="sarasota">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Irving was commissioned to write a screenplay for the movie.<ref name="sarasota" /> In 2015, Anonymous Content's option for the book's dramatic rights expired.Template:Citation needed

Later life and deathEdit

In 2012 Irving formatted and placed 12 of his books, including one unpublished novel, for sale on Kindle and Nook.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref> In 2014 he added six books to the total, including his prison journal.<ref name="Telereads">Template:Cite news</ref> Sales were briskTemplate:Cn. Irving was open about it Template:What?, and offered the text of the hoax autobiography for sale in book form.

Irving died of pancreatic cancer in Sarasota, Florida, at the age of 87.<ref name="NYT obit">Template:Cite news</ref>

LegacyEdit

In November 2014 the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas announced that they had acquired all of Irving's literary and personal papers.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The archive includes material from more than 50 years, from 1954 to 2012. Among the trove is Irving's correspondence with lawyers, publishers, colleagues and friends such as Graham Greene, Robert Graves and Irwin Shaw, his personal diaries and prison journals, many manuscript drafts, legal documents from lawsuits and from his 1972 bankruptcy, portions of his Howard Hughes manuscript and extensive handwritten notes and musings. It fills 20 boxes in the research center archive.

Don Carleton, executive director at the Briscoe Center, remarked of Clifford Irving that he was "an important writer who has lived a colorful and controversial life, which has been a major source of inspiration for much of his literary work". He also said that he was "delighted that his papers are now available to enrich scholarship here at the university."<ref name=":1" />

BibliographyEdit

Books

Book contributions

ReferencesEdit

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Further readingEdit

External linksEdit

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Documentary films

Produced for German television. Richard Suskind portrayed himself.
Includes a segment on Irving filmed around the time the Hughes autobiography scandal broke.

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