num_pages: 688
description: “A splendidly entertaining, definitive work.”—Entertainment WeeklyIn 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.
language: English
title: Orson Welles, Volume 1: The Road to Xanadu
titlecomplete: Orson Welles, Volume 1: The Road to Xanadu (Orson Welles, #1)
characters: Katharine Cornell, William Alland, John Houseman, Micheál Mac Liammóir, Marc Blitzstein, Hallie Flanagan, Orson Welles, Hilton Edwards, Brooks Atkinson, Hiram Sherman, Virgil Thomson
genres: Theatre, Autobiography, History, Film, Media Tie In, Biography Memoir, Biography, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 592
series: Orson Welles
publisher: Penguin Books