Orson Welles, Volume 2
  • Published: 2 July 2007
  • ISBN: 9780099462613
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 560
  • RRP: $39.99

Orson Welles, Volume 2

Hello Americans

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Aug 2011
Paperback
2 Jul 2007
Buy from…
Amazon Booktopia Dymocks QBD Readings Find local retailers Find local retailers Abbeys Angus & Robertson Boomerang Collins Fishpond Gleebooks Harry Hartog Kinokuniya Robinsons The Nile Your Bookstore

From Citizen Kane to Macbeth, the second volume of Simon Callow's brilliant, definitive biography of Orson Welles explores the beginning of the end of Welles' Hollywood career.

The reason for the decline of Orson Welles's career is a hotly debated issue, but decline it certainly did. When Citizen Kane, his first film, opened in 1941, Welles was universally acclaimed as the most audacious filmmaker alive. But instead of marking the beginning of a triumphant career in Hollywood, the film still regularly voted the greatest ever made proved to be an exception in Welles's life and work.

In 1947 Welles left America for Europe and lived for the best part of twenty years in self-imposed exile. Welles himself famously quipped 'I started at the top and worked my way down' - the second volume of Simon Callow's compelling biography tells the story of that complex and protracted descent from grace.
  • Published: 2 July 2007
  • ISBN: 9780099462613
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 560
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Simon Callow

Simon Callow is an actor, director and writer. He has appeared on the stage and in many films, including the hugely popular Four Weddings and a Funeral. His books include Being an Actor, Shooting the Actor, Love is Where it Falls, the first two volumes of his four-volume life of Orson Welles, his theatrical memoir My Life in Pieces, and, most recently, the highly acclaimed Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World.

Also by Simon Callow

Orson Welles, Volume 3
Charles Laughton
Being An Actor
Shooting the Actor
Orson Welles, Volume 1
See all

Praise for Orson Welles, Volume 2

Hello Americans is full of witty asides...As a biographer, Callow is a match for his subject in terms of showmanship, but he has gifts of analysis that eluded Welles... enchanting

Christopher Silvester, Sunday Times

Simon Callow is to be commended for Hello Americans, as it is not only the best biography of Welles that we can possibly have, it is also one of the best biographies in any field I've read in years

Sunday Express, Roger Lewis

There is here some of the most vivid and instructive writing on the craft of movie and stage acting I've ever read

Philip French, Observer

This is a bitter-sweet book: we say goodbye to the very best of company but we also look forward to Callow bringing that company back to life in his third volume

Tom Dewe Matthews, Independent on Sunday

The research is breathtaking. The book is bursting with details, references and anecdotes

James Christopher, The Times

Callow's precise prose and sober judgement make this second volume of biography one to be cherished and leaves one eagerly anticipating volume three

Michael Arditti, Daily Mail

Callow's riveting and superlative biography satisfies at every level, and I for one cannot wait for the next volume

Frank McLynn, Literary Review

A vivid, sympathetic account... provides a definitive explanation of Welles's ultimate, lingering downfall

Financial Times

I am already looking forward to [the third volume] such is Callow's sympathetic absorption in the mass of material, which he handles with a light and ironic touch, that I found myself utterly hooked... As an actor himself Callow writes illuminatingly about Welles's performances

Mail on Sunday

Callow's enterprise is one of the rarest in publishing. It leaves the reader dry-mouthed with anticipation for his final, third volume

Alan Warner, Guardian

The only biog really worth it's salt this year...reliably entertaining, wise and sane

Catherine Shoard, Evening Standard

Welles’s packed schedule is rifled through with chatty elegance

Catherine Shoard, Sunday Telegraph