Clifford Michael Irving (born November 5, 1930) is an American investigative reporter and author of best-selling novels and works of nonfiction, but best known for his hoax "autobiography" of reclusive and eccentric businessman Howard Hughes in the early 1970s. After Hughes denounced him and sued McGraw-Hill, the publisher, Irving confessed the hoax and was subsequently sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, serving 17 months.
Irving grew u...
More
Clifford Michael Irving (born November 5, 1930) is an American investigative reporter and author of best-selling novels and works of nonfiction, but best known for his hoax "autobiography" of reclusive and eccentric businessman Howard Hughes in the early 1970s. After Hughes denounced him and sued McGraw-Hill, the publisher, Irving confessed the hoax and was subsequently sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, serving 17 months.
Irving grew up in New York City, the son of Dorothy and Jay Irving, a Collier's cover artist and the creator of the syndicated comic strip Pottsy, about a fat and friendly New York City policeman. After graduating in 1947 from Manhattan's High School of Music and Art, Irving attended Cornell University, graduated with honors in English, and worked on his first novel, On a Darkling Plain (Putnam, 1956), while he was a copy boy at The New York Times. He completed his second novel, The Losers (1958), as he traveled about Europe. He led an adventurous life,...
Less
