Review

“Unfailingly intelligent and well written . . . Callow's portrait is so vivid and three-dimensional.”

—Variety

“His project will not only the best book on Welles but also one of the great biographies in the field of cinema and the performing arts.”

—The Observer (London)

“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 of any field I’ve read in years.”

—The Daily Express (London)

“A ravishing read, brilliantly allusive, with lightning leaps of insight . . . With this book, Simon Callow has proven himself entirely worthy of our trust and admiration.”

—The New York Observer

“Mr. Callow, a divine and witty actor, is also a gifted writer. . . . Hello Americans, the sparkling second volume, is a rollercoaster covering most of the 1940s.”

—The Wall Street Journal

“Hello Americans is gripping, thanks partly to stellar writing, access to memos and telegrams, and the kind of insight into an artist that can only come from a fellow artist. Callow not only investigates all strands of Welles’ life, but he also weaves them together. Does the world deserve biographies this good?”

—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“One of the year’s best full-bore biographies. . . . Volume 2 took [Callow] a decade to complete, but it was worth the wait. . . . It’s intricately detailed but never dull.”

—Town & Country

“If the galumphing enigma of Orson Welles is to be resolved, we may have to look to Simon Callow, whose multivolume biography is shaping up to be a major acheivement.”

—The Washington Post

“Animated by a brisk intelligence . . . He shapes and interprets his material and with panache places his story in rich context. . . . Callow is as indefatigable a researcher as he is a stylish writer.”

—The Atlantic Monthly

“Scintillating . . . Callow’s is a superbly written account of a magnetic personality and towering talent plagued by internal weakness and external friction, one that manages to shape the ‘Orsonic tornado’ into an engrossing tragicomedy.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Read more

About the Author

Simon Callow is an actor, director, and writer. He has appeared on the stage and in many films, including Four Weddings and a Funeral. His other books include Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu, Orson Welles: One-Man Band, Shooting the Actor, and Being an Actor.

Simon Callow's celebrated first volume of Orson Welles's life concluded with the brash young director unveiling what would prove to be his—and arguably American cinema's—greatest achievement: Citizen Kane. But instead of embarking on an illustrious career in Hollywood, as Callow vividly details in Hello Americans, Welles became increasingly unable to function within the structure of the moviemaking industry.

Hello Americans offers readers a critical look at the years after Citizen Kane up to Macbeth (1947), from his difficult and self-defeating temperament to some of the monstrous personalities with whom he was involved. Callow fully illustrates each film of the period—The Magnificent Ambersons, Journey into Fear, The Stranger, The Lady from Shanghai—as well as Welles's off-screen activities—his dedicated but ill-fated attempts to be a radio comedian and stage magician; his fervent desire to revive spectacular theater single- handedly; his newspaper columns; and his political interests, which he pursued passionately. The result is an expertly researched and elegantly written portrait that will remain the final word on this larger than life genius for generations to come.