Welles - The Misunderstood Genius

President Franklin Roosevelt encouraged him to try a run for the Senate; newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst branded him a pariah

But by the time he turned 30, Orson Welles' professional success ended irreversibly; from then until the day he died, he endured ridicule and reproach over what many judged his "failure"

Few knew how feverishly he had persisted as an independent filmmaker

Now, decades after his death, "new" work keeps emerging, and his reputation as an undefeated genius and creator only grows

People talk about Hollywood glamour, about studios that had more stars than there are in heaven, about actors who weren't actors but were icons

For this 192-page book, editor Paul Duncan has painstaking selected approximately 150 high quality enigmatic and sumptuous portraits, colorful posters and lobby cards, rare film stills, and previously unpublished candid photos

These images are accompanied by concise introductory essays by leading film writers and it also includes a chronology, a filmography, and a bibliography, peppered with apposite quotes from his movies and life