Archivists at the University of Michigan say they have discovered extensive fragments of, and notes for, Orson Welles’ autobiography in a trove of papers newly purchased from Oja Kodar.
With the working title Confessions of a One-Man Band, an unfinished memoir appears to have been in the works since the 1970s, and matches up with additional fragments already in the university’s extensive Welles archive, officials told the New York Times.
“It’s scattered, we’re still sorting through” about eight boxes of new material, said Philip Hallman, curator of the university’s Screen Arts Mavericks and Makers collection. The Wellesian papers arrived last week from Croatia, where they had been kept by Kodar, who was Welles companion in his later years.
Hallman said it was impossible to tell yet whether the autobiography is complete enough to publish.
“We had hoped to do that,” said Hallman. “But looking at it now, I’m not so sure.”
It will take perhaps five months to arrange the papers for public use.
The 80-page manuscript with an envelope containing select photographs was among the eight boxes of Welles items Kodar sold to the university, the Associated Press reported.
University officials declined to disclose the purchase price of the papers.
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