Orson Welles, Barbara Leaming
Orson Welles, Barbara Leaming
List: $31.95 | Sale: $22.36
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Orson Welles
A Biography

Author: Barbara Leaming

Narrator: Grace Conlin

Unabridged: 22 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/25/2009

Synopsis

Genius, artist, monstre sacr, Orson Welles had one of the most brilliant and tempestuous careers in show business. Here he confides his most intimate feelings and recollections of his extraordinary life. With remarkable detail and intimacy, Barbara Leaming reveals the private Welles: from child prodigy and young lion in Dublin and New York, to the succs de scandale of his The War of the Worlds broadcast; from his auspicious directing debut with the legendary Citizen Kane in his twenties, to the sabotage of his further directing career by the Hollywood studios; from his affairs, carousing, and stormy marriage to Rita Hayworth, to his association with Roosevelt and aspirations to the presidency. It is a picture with an allstar cast, including Olivier, Monroe, Dietrich, Garbo, Warren Beatty, Charlie Chaplin, Princess Margaret, and Prince Aly Khan.

About Barbara Leaming

Barbara Leaming is the author of the critically acclaimed Orson Welles and the New York Times bestseller Katharine Hepburn. Her articles have appeared in Vanity Fair and The New York Times Magazine. She lives in Connecticut.

Reviews

Goodreads review by John on October 21, 2014

I picked this bio to read because I'm a fan of Welles's acting and directing. I remember him also as a TV talk-show personality in the '60s. Sometimes he performed magic on those shows, which was something he started doing as a child. The Wunderkind truly showed talent early on, directing a version o......more

Goodreads review by Liz on October 08, 2014

Just an amazing biography from start to finish. Learned so much about this enfant-terrible/precocious child/genius, but most importantly, realized how Hollywood, then and now, is not quite equipped to deal with such genius! A sad state of affairs, but he was, regardless how you view him, a man who d......more

Goodreads review by Marti on October 04, 2014

I thought I knew a fair amount of superficial things about Orson Welles (the Harlem production of Macbeth, infamous War of the Worlds and Citizen Kane). However, his precocious childhood, in which he really was more like a miniature adult, and entire subsequent life were much stranger than I had eve......more

Goodreads review by Bob on September 25, 2014

Barbara Leaming's biography of Orson Welles is now at the top of my biography list. Not only did Welles contribute vast amounts of time and personal information, but his advice to put the biographer in the story was spot on. The short chapters of Ms. Leaming's personal anecdotes of dealing with her......more

Goodreads review by Carolyn on April 12, 2015

This book is a fairly thorough review of Orson Welles' life, and in particular his background. But there was so much emphasis on his childhood and early years, it makes the rest of his life zip by. One thing I particularly didn't like about this biography is that the author very rarely cites the dat......more

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