Writer masterminded great literary hoax
Notorious prankster almost got away with fake autobiography of Hughes
Clifford Irving, whose scheme to publish a phoney autobiography of billionaire Howard Hughes created a sensation in the 1970s and stands as one of the all-time literary hoaxes, has died in hospice care. He was 87.
Irving’s wife, Julie Irving, confirmed he died Dec. 19 at a hospice near his Sarasota home, The New York Times reported. She said he had been admitted there after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about a week earlier.
A novelist of little note in 1971, Irving conned McGraw-Hill publishers into paying him a $765,000 advance for a book about the reclusive Hughes. His elaborate ruse became the subject of the 2006 movie The Hoax, starring Richard Gere.
Irving served 17 months in federal prison for fraud after Hughes emerged to condemn the work as a fabrication.
The scam “was exciting. It was a challenge. It became an adventure,” Irving told the Los Angeles Times in 2007.
Hughes had long withdrawn from his life as a powerful industrialist, aviator and filmmaker. Irving insisted he had several clandestine meetings with Hughes. He submitted to a lie-detector test and produced documents purportedly from the billionaire, including a handwritten letter written to McGraw-Hill.
The letter, forged by Irving, was deemed authentic by handwriting analysts hired by McGraw-Hill. At that point, the publisher decided to move forward with the book.
The deception was unravelled by investigative reporter James Phelan.
Hughes himself then surfaced to conduct a telephone conference with reporters during which he repudiated Irving’s story and said he had never met him.
Irving was unhappy with the movie version of his escapades. “Movie Clifford has the energy of a not-too-bright psychopath. If I were that man, I’d shoot myself. The movie is best thought of as a hoax.”