24 Facts About Clifford Irving

Clifford Michael Irving was an American novelist and investigative reporter.

Clifford Irving was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, of which he served 17 months.

Clifford Irving later wrote The Hoax, his account of events surrounding the development and sale of the fake autobiography.

Clifford Irving continued to write and published his later books as e-books available via Kindle and Nook.

Clifford Irving grew up in New York City, the son of Jay Clifford Irving, a Collier's cover artist and the creator of the syndicated comic strip Pottsy, and his wife, Dorothy.

Clifford Irving completed his second novel, The Losers, while traveling in Europe.

Clifford Irving's third novel, The Valley, is a mythic Western saga, published by McGraw-Hill.

Clifford Irving died the following year at Big Sur in an automobile accident on May 8,1959.

In 1962, after a year spent traveling around the world and living in a houseboat in Kashmir, Clifford Irving moved back to Ibiza with his third wife, Fay Desch, an English photographic model, and their newborn son, Josh.

Clifford Irving reportedly had a lengthy affair in the 1970s with the Danish actress and singer Nina van Pallandt.

In 1970, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Clifford Irving met with Richard Suskind, a longtime friend who was an author of children's books.

Clifford Irving started by enlisting the aid of artist and writer friends on Ibiza in order to forge letters in Hughes's own hand, imitating authentic letters they had seen displayed in Newsweek magazine.

McGraw-Hill paid an advance of US$100,000, with an additional US$400,000 to be paid to Hughes; Clifford Irving later bargained the sum up to US$765,000.

Frank McCulloch, known for years as the last journalist to interview Hughes, had received an angry call from someone claiming to be Hughes, but after he read the Clifford Irving manuscript, became convinced that the book was genuine.

Clifford Irving claimed the voice on the phone was an imposter, but it subsequently became clear that Clifford Irving was the fraud.

Clifford Irving voluntarily returned the US$765,000 advance to his publishers.

Clifford Irving characterized the film as a cliched distortion of the story and "a hoax about a hoax".

Clifford Irving described the film's portrayals of Suskind, Edith Irving and himself as "absurd even more than inaccurate".

Clifford Irving noted that the film was not true to his account, adding events that had not taken place.

Clifford Irving was commissioned to write a screenplay for the movie.

In 2012 Clifford Irving formatted and placed 12 of his books, including one unpublished novel, for sale on Kindle and Nook.

Clifford Irving was open about it, and offered the text of the hoax autobiography for sale in book form.

Clifford Irving died of pancreatic cancer in Sarasota, Florida, at the age of 87.

Don Carleton, executive director at the Briscoe Center, remarked of Clifford Irving that he was "an important writer who has lived a colorful and controversial life, which has been a major source of inspiration for much of his literary work".