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Podcast: Witness History
Episode: The Howard Hughes literary hoax
Description: In 1971, the publishing world was rocked by one of the biggest hoaxes in literary history – a fake autobiography of the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes.Hughes was an aerospace engineer, film producer, record-breaking aviator and business tycoon, who’d built a $2 billion fortune to become one of the richest people in the world.But for years he’d been living as a recluse, reportedly so terrified of catching a disease that he had almost no contact with the outside world.That's why the publishers, McGraw Hill, were delighted when Clifford Irving, an American author, persua...