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by: Simon Callow
List Price: $18.00Amazon.com's Price: $13.50 You Save: $4.50 (25%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.430233092
EAN: 9780140254563
ISBN: 0140254560
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 688
Publication Date: February 01, 1997
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Sales Rank: 369964
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
In this first installment of his masterful biography, Simon Callow captures the chameleonic genius of Orson Welles as only an actor/director deeply rooted in the entertainment industry could. Here is Welles’s prodigious childhood; his youth in New York, with its fraught partnership with John Houseman and the groundbreaking triumph of his all-black Macbeth; the pioneering radio work that culminated in the notorious 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds; and finally, his work in Hollywood, including an authoritative account of the making of Citizen Kane. Rich in detail and insight, this is far and away the definitive look at Orson Welles—a figure even more extraordinary than the myths that have surrounded him.
Amazon.com:
Now in paperback, Callow's vastly entertaining chronicle of Welles's first 26 years seems even finer than it did in 1995. The author's ability to skewer his subject's evasions and lies while retaining critical affection for him is perhaps explained by the fact that Callow, an actor himself, understands the need to mythologize. Welles's innovative theatrical work in the 1930s has never been better described or analyzed. Even such oft-told sagas as the War of the Worlds broadcast and the filming of Citizen Kane gain new dimension from Callow's intelligent treatment.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Orson Welles: From Kenosha boy genius to Hollywood Outcast in volume I of the Callow multivolume bioography
Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1915. His wild father loved dames, booze and travel while making an upper class living in industry. His mother was a socialite well known in church and community. His older brother had mental problems and spent time in an institution. And so the scene is set for the Kenosha kid the inimitable huckstere, magician, director, actor, storyteller and good time Charlie we call Citizen Welles!
Orson studied at the prestigious private Todd School for ... Read More
Rating:  - George Orson Welles
This is a fantastic, very detailed and rather objective biography of the boy genius of the theatre world. 600 pages about Welles for only the first 26 years of his life is a lot, but definitly worth all the details.
The author basically tells Orson's early life around the plays he directed and that were his life at the time. It is amazing to me how a 14 year old kid was able to succesfully direct Shakespeare plays and even write a book on how to understand Shakerpeare's work.
The ... Read More
Rating: - The American
Simon Callow's thick and detailed biography of Orson Welles is a staggeringly thorough account of the actor/director's life, from his birth up until the release of his most famous picture, CITIZEN KANE. Callow goes to great lengths to separate the man from his inhumanly grandiose reputation. Armed with years of research, his personal interviews, and a keen sense of humor, Callow sets off to discover the real early life of Orson Welles. He finds a man smaller than his gargantuan myth, yet fascinating ... Read More
Rating: - Requiem for a Huckster
In his later years, Welles often complained that he spent more time trying to find money to make films than he did actually making films. And seeing Welles still scrambling for cash in his last days as a commercial pitchman for such products as Dark Tower and Paul Masson Wines ("Where we will sell no wine before it's time"), you know he was right.
This entertaining and exhaustive book by Simon Callow doesn't deal with most of his film career - only covering up to 1941. (We're still waiting on ... Read More
Rating: - The World Was His Xanadu...
.... "He wandered it's corridors, looking for money." Simon Callow gifts us with the deep portrait of Orson Welles from a gay man, an actor, and, like Welles, a virtuoso of many fields of endeavor. Like Shakespeare, Orson was comfortable, and indeed dependent upon, those of us who lean toward the familiar in the search for love. (Because, perhaps, of his own stoney heterosexuality). Be that as it may, Mr. Callow's own insights are what add volumes to this biography beyond what all else has already been ... Read More
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