This is Orson Welles

This is Orson Welles

Editor	Jonathan Rosenbaum
Author	Orson Welles Peter Bogdanovich
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Biography Filmmaking
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	September 1992
Media type	Print (Hardcover), Audiobook
Pages	533 pp. (first edition)
ISBN	0-06-016616-9

This is Orson Welles is a 1992 book by Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich that comprises conversations between the two filmmakers recorded over several years, beginning in 1969.^[1]: xxiv The wide-ranging volume encompasses Welles's life and his own stage, radio, and film work as well as his insights on the work of others. The book was edited after Welles's death, at the request of Welles's longtime companion and professional collaborator, Oja Kodar. Jonathan Rosenbaum drew from several incomplete drafts of the manuscript and many reel-to-reel tapes, most of which had already been transcribed. Much of the dialogue, however, had been rewritten by Welles, often in several drafts.

In addition to more than 300 pages of interviews, the book includes an annotated chronology of Welles's career, a summary of the alterations made to Welles's 1942 masterpiece The Magnificent Ambersons and notes on each chapter by Rosenbaum.

A second edition of This is Orson Welles was published in paperback in 1998, with a new introduction by Bogdanovich and excerpts of a 58-page memo Welles wrote Universal Pictures about the editing of his 1958 film Touch of Evil, in which he made close to fifty practical suggestions.^[2] The studio disregarded Welles's memo, but in 1998 editor Walter Murch reedited the film according to Welles's specifications.

The 1992 audiobook version of This is Orson Welles was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Album.^[3]