New Books on OW

[Tony]

It's exciting to see that several new books have come out recently or are coming out soon on OW. Of course, last year's Garis and Conrad books: the Garis just came out in pbk, and the Conrad will come out in paper in Sept. As for new books, in August there will be James Naremore's "Orson Welles 'Citizen Kane': A Casebook". Then in Oct. there will be "Orson Welles" by Ben Walters. In December there will be Joseph McBride's "Whatever happened to Orson Welles? A Portrait of an Independent Career", "Orson Welles: The Complete Films" by F.X. Feeney and, as Jeff mentioned "Walking Shadows: Welles, Hearst and Kane" by John Walsh. And as Jeff has also noted, in February 2005 Clinton Heylin's " Despite the system: OW Versus the Hollywood Studios" will come out. I'd also like to mention a book I recently purchased: "Three Philosophical filmakers: Hitchcock, Welles, Renoir" by Irving Singer.

That's 9 books (in English) in a year and a half, probably a record for Welles. Unfortunately, so far it's been a mixed Orson's Bag. I found the Conrad unreadable, and the Garis weak (he died before finishing, and the manuscript was put together by friends). And even though Singer is an MIT prof of Philosophy, I find his book dull (and the OW chapter is interuppted by a very long digression on Huston's "The Dead".) Of course, both McBride and Naremore have written classic books on Welles previously, so I eagerly await their tomes. And I've read one of Heylin's 2 books on Dylan, and he's a terrificly insightful author: my bet is that one will be very good. I don't know anything about Ben Walters or John Walsh, so will just have to wait.

Still, it's great to see this mini-rennaissance on OW; now, if we can just get decent releases on TOSOTW, Don Quixote and The Deep, we'd have no complaints in the land of Orson!

[Johnny Dale]

Naremore is a treasure for Welles scholarship.

Here's a link, from his new book, that reprints the Bogdanovich interview with Welles on Kane:

O.W. on Kane

contents etc.

[Tony]

I've modified the post with another new Dec. release.

[Pooh]

What about the Taschen Book ??
I'm waiting for it

Finally, another Welles book is surfacing in the fall, from art publisher Taschen's filmmakers series, which has already published editions on Kubrick, Hitchcock and Billy Wilder. The author is listed as F.X. Feeney, who co-wrote the script for the adaptation of The Big Brass Ring. No US date given yet, but September and December dates are given for France and the UK respectively.
Wellesnet JULY 17, 2003

I was so exiting about a Taschen book (especialy for beautiful pics ) that I keep looking Every month in the Taschen Library in Paris if it is relase -> He's not!!

Does Anyone know much about this stuff????

[Christopher]

Tony, Would you happen to know if the Ben Walters book -- "Orson Welles" -- due out in October is a biography or a book of film criticism? Thanks.

[Christopher]

Hello, again! I just "Googled" Ben Walters and answered my own question. He is a freelance writer living in London and a regular contributor to "Sight and Sound" magazine. His first book, "Orson Welles," will be a short biography published by Haus.

[Tony]

Book Update:

Catherine Benamou, who has written extensively on Welles' Brazilian trip, and who also helped with the preparation of the film "It's All True" ( see here: www.itsalltrue.com.br/2002/e_index.html, and check under "international retrospective") has written probably the most extensively researched book ever on Welles in Brazil: "It's All True: Orson Welles at Work in Latin America", to be published by Berkeley: University of California Press. The date was listed as 2004, but it looks as though Benamou has postponed again, as she is known to be a perfectionist; too bad, as we need a definitive volume on that "fin de siecle" in Welles' consciousness. Also, there is a volume prepared by George Fanto, one of the cameramen on the Brazil trip, who has completed "On Location with Orson Welles:a Memoir" edited and with an introduction by Catherine Benamou. No date on that one as of yet.

And finally, there is a manuscript finished and ready to go by an American professor which collects Wells' writings together. Apparently the project has been put on hold, as Beatrice Welles has demanded a royalty so high that the editor (who worked on the mss for several years) would receive almost nothing.

If anyone else has any updates, I'd love to hear them!

[Wilson]

The book of Welles' writings has been done for years, and it probably won't happen, given the demands you mentioned above. I had heard Beatrice wanted more than 90% of any money to come from the book, and given the already small sum this was likely to make, you can see the problem. I understand it was quite the horror story for the editor. I think it was mentioned elsewhere here, but it was a while back.

And the Conrad book was just given a very negative review in the latest London Review of Books, but I haven't been able to find a copy to read it. I've found it fairly tedious going myself.



Edited By Wilson on June 16 2004 at 10:41

[Tony]

Jeff:

Here's a David Thompson (Yes- That David Thompson) review of the Conrad:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/books/story/0,12788,1110601,00.html

Actually, Thompson is a heck of a writer, don't you think?

[L French]

Actually, Jonathan Rosenbaum reports that Sidney Gottlieb, the editor of the planned WELLES ON WELLES book has now apparently solved the demands that were made by Beatrice and can go ahead and publish the book. It's just a matter of his getting everything together. It would contain most of the major articles Welles wrote throughout his career, including newspaper columns, tributes, the two excerpts from his planned autobiography that were published in French Vogue, and a short story he wrote for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.

* * *

JONATHAN ROSENBAUM: It's an excellent book of Welles' writings, called WELLES ON WELLES, that the University of California Press has been ready to publish for years, but the demands they're making are quite unreasonable. They're asking not only for 90% of all the money, which means that Sid Gottlieb, who worked for years editing it gets nothing or practically nothing, but they want final editorial control as well-on a project they know nothing about and didn't do any work on. It's an excellent of Welles articles, but it may never come out. It's a companion volume to HITCHCOCK ON HITCHCOCK.

[Wilson]

Ah, well that's good news then. I guess the estate saw the light for once. As for Thomson, he certainly has a way with words. I enjoy reading his writing even he's often full of it when it comes to Welles.

[Tony]

I agree, Jeff; Thomson is fun to disagree with- but Conrad- he practices the same kind of improvisatory writing as does Thomson, but he's just not that interesting to me; his writing is filled with minutae, in no apparent logical order- very heavy sledding. However, here's another review, very finely written, I'd say, which is very complimentary to the book:
http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/online/bookswelles.htm

And that's great news about "Welles on Welles", (Thanks Lawrence) and that makes 10 books on Welles in the last 18 months! Can any other filmaker , living or dead, top that, or even equal it?

"We are not alone"

[Tony]

And here's a link to a piece by Conrad, and another review of his book (from Variety) both from 2003:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/feature....00.html

http://allisonburnett.com/Review%20Archives/welles.html