The Hoax

Clifford Michael Irving was born in Manhattan, New York on November 5, 1930. He received a degree in English from Cornell University. He became an author and his early novels included On a Darkling Plain, The Losers, and The Valley. He also wrote an as-told-to memoir, Fake!: The Story of Elmyr de Hory, the Greatest Art Forger of Our Time.

In early 1971, Irving decided to write an authorized autobiography of Howard Hughes based on meetings and interviews that never took place. He received an advance from McGraw-Hill and sold rights to Life magazine and Dell. He fooled editors, lawyers, handwriting experts, and journalists who had interviewed Hughes in the past. The book was about to go to press at the end of 1971, when Hughes went public and denied knowing Irving. In March 1972, Irving and his wife pleaded guilty to conspiracy in federal court. In state court, they along with Irving's research assistant, Richard Suskind pleaded guilty to conspiracy and grand larceny. Irving was given a prison sentence of two and a half years and served 17 months.

Irving and Suskind wrote about the incident in Clifford Irving: What Really Happened, which was published in 1972. It was reissued in 1981 as The Hoax. After serving his prison sentence, Irving wrote several novels and true-crime books including Daddy's Girl: The Campbell Murder Case, Trial, and Final Argument. In 2012, the fake Hughes autobiography was published as an e-book under the title Clifford Irving's Autobiography of Howard Hughes. He also published Jailing: The Prison Memoirs of 0040, aka Clifford Irving as an e-book. He died from pancreatic cancer on December 19, 2017 at the age of 87.

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