How Clifford Irving Sold ' By Stephen Isaacs waiduasion Post matt Writer , Jan. 29 — Suppose you are a book pub- lisher. Further, suppose one of your authors offers you a crack at one of the psiblish- ing coups of all time. The coup, you are assured, will be the 100 per cent, bona fide autobiography of Howard R. Hughes, the most McGraw-Hill His secretive and perhaps the most fascinating man in the world. You have your doubts. After all, this author has always been one of your, '1HE WASHINGTON POST Sunday, Tan. 30, 1972 well your more flaky au- A 3 ' thors, a hit of an adven- turer, a promiser of big things, who always delivers too late, who always tries to nudge a bit more in advance Latest Project royalties. After all, every other au- thor and journalist in the world wants to get at the re- clusive Hughes. Maybe it's just another promise. But, because you want the coup — if it's there to be had — you humor him, you say we'll go along if it's real. Soon, you start finding out It's not just talk. Corrob- oration starts flowing in. The author is calling you Wilson, corporate vice presi- believers, because they had from this place and that, dent of Time, Inc. (which saying he's meeting Hughes, was, for $250,000, to run wanted desperately to be- lieve. And, the next thing you three excerpts of the hook know, he has documented in its Life magazine), how BecauSe they wanted the prof, letters from the man he was so sure that this was coup, neither of the publish. himself. the real item. ing firms did any checking The excitement of the im- "Oh, we're absolutely posi- into the author's claims. pending coup overwhelms tive" Wilson confided. They wanted the coup so your customary caution. "Look, we're dealing with badly that they feared, as Since you want to believe it, people like McGraw-Hill. the author warned them, you talk yourself into believ- And, you know, we're not that they might lose what ing it. exactly a movie magazine. they had if they probed too And you get had. This is Time, Inc., and Mc- far. This, apparently, is what Graw-Hill t a I k i n g. We've All they had for corrobor- has happened to the Mc- checked this thing out. We ation was 999 pages of what Graw-Hilt Book Co., a pub- have proof." the author, Clifford Irving, lishing house noted for its He seemed offended, as said was a transcript of 100 integrity, a house known for did Al Leventhal, vice presi- hours of tapings he had with Hughes, Irving's travel and its high-priced ' and authori- dent of McGraw-Hill's book tative technical publications. division, that anyone would expense receipts, several let- ters purported to be in — and for the "autobiogra- have the temerity to ques- phy" of Howard R. Hughes. tion the veracity of one of Hughes' hand, and two can- celled checks, totaling Early Questions their undertakings. They had all become true On Dec. 7, 1971, when McGraw-Hill announced hurriedly that It was publish- ing Hughes' own life story, this reporter asked Donald $600,000, with the endorse- Graves and his assistant- ment of H. R. Hughes on the managing editor, David Ma- his sympathetic handling of ness, were certain they had the subject of the book, El- backs. myre de Hory, an alleged They checked . the hand- Hughes' life story, and they planned to syndicate ex- art forger Irving had met on writing with one graphology cerpts abroad, as well as the Spanish island where he firm, and it said the writing publish three 10,000-word lives. was Hughes'. segments in Life, along with More Letters Tht was all. No pictures of Irving's own story of how he Irving told Stewart got Hughes' cooperation, - that, Hughes. No nothing. Irving furthermore, Hughes had They did not, however, written him two more let- said the man forbade that. show the manuscript to ters, both in January, and Garry Valk, Life's pub- their own Frank McCulloch, he thought he might be able lisher, was not even told de- head of the Time-Life news to talk Hughes into collabo- tails of the project. Several service in New York. Mc- rating on a biography. Stew- days after the announce- Culloch, a tough, highly re- art, after conferring with ment, he told this reporter spected newsman, was one Leventhal, told Irving to go that "I was afraid I might of the last journalists known ahead. blurt out something at a to have interviewed Howard party. So I told Ralph Hughes—back in 1957. (Ralph Graves, Life's man- Expert Was Sure Soon thereafter, Stewart aging editor) not to even tell When McCulloch did read me what he was doing." the book, it was only after and Leventhal started get- Irving had them sewn up. the he ting calls from Irving from Manuscript Convincing knew had talked to him over various places where, Irving He had also provided the telephone on Dec. 14 told them, he was meeting them wih a whale of a man- and told him the autobiogra- with Hughes. uscript. phy was a fake. Last March, Irving ap- Graves will say in an arti- Even after McCulloch was peared in New York bearing cle to be published in Life's told that, and was given the a book contract between issue on sale Monday that "I manuscript, be was sure the him and Howard R. Hughes, was skeptical about any- manuscrip was authentic. signed by him and Howard thing involving Howard But he and Graves then R. Hughes, and dated March Hughes" but was convinced undertook an investigation 4. by those 999 pages of tran- to find out If Irving had McGraw-Hill could not do been telling the truth about any checking. however. Irv- script. how he got the information I "It was marvelous stuff," ing insisted that Hughes had his article says. "Outspoken, for the book. told him he would back out full of rich and 'outrageous On Jan. 20, Graves and of the project if that were anecdotes, as well as de- McCulloch grilled Irving for done—that Irving had t o tailed accounts of Hughes' four hours. Irving stuck to guarantee complete secrecy. youth, his movie-making. his his story. Leventhal, anxious to career in aviation, his busi- Thursday night, Irving fi- preserve the coup, complied. ness affairs, his private life, nally told McCulloch ihst On March 23, Irving got his opinions and crotchets. the two McGraw-Hill cheeks i McGraw-Hill to sign a con- "He explained why he made out to H. R. fluqh tract with him for the phoned people on business - and another for $50,000 that 'Hughes book for $500,000 in matters in the middle of the he had purchased to the advance royalties. Irving night (he kept strange hours order of H. R. Hughes, had was paid $100,000 of that anyway, and it caught them been deposited by his wife, three weeks later. Edith, in a Swiss bank, and at their weakest moment). the money later withdrawn The Selling Game "He explained his philoso- McGraw-Hill then immedi- phy of business negotiation by her. With Irving's credibility ately went to work selling. (one man always plays lion, It confided its coup to one man plays donkey, and now somewhat In question, it is always better to be the there remains, of course, lion and eat the donkey). how he got the material—a "He told business yarns ranging from high finance Dell Publishing Co. and con- in TWA (Trans World Air- tracted with it (for several lines) to the time a high- hundred thousand dollars) ranking corporate friend question still very much un- for paperback rights, and was caught swiping a box of answered. with the Book-of-the-Month cookies from the supermar- It began a year ago, when Club for book club rights. ket. Even the boring parts Irving called his editor at were persuasive: Howard McGraw Hill, Robert Stew- Hughes has always been fas- art, to ask Stewart whether cinated by the minutiae of he could tell Howard aircraft design and perform- Hughes, supposedly the real ance, and the transcript had Howard Hughes, that Mc- lots of it. I think we bad all Graw-Hill was his publisher. sat down to read with hope He told Stewart that he but with severe doubts. We had sent Hughes a copy of finished with the conviction his last book. "Fake," (which that these 1,000 pages of McGraw-Hill published in talk were authentic." 1969) and that Hughes had From – that moment, written him a letter praising Clifford Irving, right, with an unidentified man, interviewed in New Yo Arr Piraidday?."38 `Mrs. Irving' Calls Bank ZURIC H, , Craw-Hill Inc., the New with a man he is convinced Jan. 29 (AP)—A woman who York publishers of a dis- identified herself as Mrs. was Hughes. Clifford Irving, wife of the puted Hughes book au- Suskind said Hughes "of American writer, has tele- thored by Irving. They said fered me a prune and we phoned Swiss police to say they had paid the money to talked for a minute or two that she withdrew the Hughes. about one thing and an- $650,000 intended for How- The district attorney said ard Hughes from a Zurich other." Suskind said he re- the woman told police Irv- ported this in an affidavit to hank account. investigators ing had made a statement to announced today. the New York State Su- American investigators say- preme Court. Zurich District Attorney ing she had opened the ac- Dr. Metre Veleff said the Suskind, in a telephone in- count. terview from his home In caller from New York Fri- A Swiss police request for day night said she was ready Majorca, said he had never confirmation radioed Friday seen Hughes before the to come to Zurich next week night to the Washington bu- to answer questions con- meeting in the motel and reau of Interpol, the inter- had seen "just his photos." cerning the case. national police organization, The woman who withdrew He added that he was in the drew only the answer that room with the recluse indus- the money from a Swiss the Irvings would be ques- credit hank account here is trialist about two minutes. tioned in New York on Mon- Asked if he thought Irv- wanted on several counts of day, Veleff said. fraud, according to an Inter- ing's purported autobiogra- Meanwhile, in Majorca phy of Hughes was authen- national warrant Issued six Richard Suskind, a re- days ago. The warrant was tic, Suskind replied: "Abso- searcher employed by Irv- lutely." The researcher said made out after a criminal ing, said he and Irving met complaint was filed by Mc- the meeting took at a Florida motel last June place on June 12, 1971.