Walking Shadows: Orson Welles, William Randolph Hearst, and Citizen Kane - Hardcover

by John Evangelist Walsh (Author)

Walking Shadows dramatically dissects the wild, high-profile battle between newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and famous young actor, director, and filmmaker Orson Welles over Welles's groundbreaking film Citizen Kane. In 1940 and 1941 it became the center of public controversy and scandal, especially in Hollywood where Welles's own stark honesty and blatant self-confidence heightened the drama.
Citizen Kane portrayed the ruthless career of an all-powerful magnate bearing (not accidentally) a striking resemblance to Hearst, who immediately tried to kill the picture. John Evangelist Walsh here illuminates the conflict between these two outsize personalities and for the first time brings Hearst's vengeful anti-Kane campaign to the fore. Walsh provides thorough documentation, supplemental notes, and an extended bibliography.

Author Biography

John Evangelist Walsh, an independent writer and scholar, is the author of more than twenty works of biography and history, including The Execution of Major Andre; Moonlight: Abraham Lincoln and the Almanac Trial; Unraveling Piltdown: The Science Fraud of the Century and Its Solution; and Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe. He lives in Monroe, Wisconsin.