Howard hughes book biography

Author 19 books followers. When I was growing up, I heard a lot about Howard Hughes, the reclusive genius businessman. A man who dated beautiful women, who was a Hollywood mogul, who was a major player in the airline industry, someone who became a player in Las Vegas gambling, and so on. Well, I was wrong. This book's subtitle includes the term "madness.

A few examples. He took over RKO studio, one of the major studios in Hollywood. He produced a few good movies, but he ended up producing rather few. In the process, the studio became a losing proposition. Or, when he owned and ran TWA, a then premier airline company. When jets became the norm, he was paralyzed and could not pull the trigger on purchasing enough jets to allow TWA to compete.

As a result, he lost control of the company. What about his playboy image? Surely, he dated many women. He ultimately married Jean Peters, an actress. But the circumstances were bizarre. She had to make appointments to see him--or even phone him. They seldom lived together. An indication of a difficulty with other people. He hated paying taxes and was always on the lookout for finding ways to reduce his tax burden.

His Howard Hughes Institute for medical research was an example. Later on, his mental problems became overwhelming, as he lived with little contact with humans, letting his nails grow very long, unable to make business decisions, and so on. He did have successes. His Spruce Goose flew. He was, in fact, a very howard hughes book biography pilot. One of his companies was a successful defense contractor.

A fascinating portrayal of an iconic figure, who never lived up to his reputation. And who ended up an almost pathetic figure. You know the Simpsons episode where Monty Burns runs a casino and lives in his room, afeared of Freemason-spruiking germs and wearing Kleenex boxes on his feet? Like this: Well, that's basically the story of Howard Hughes, except Hughes isn't wearing any pyjamas.

Oh, and he's jacking enough codeine and Valium to kill the average person. No biggie. The book is exceptionally well researched - coming from a journalistic background it'd be a surprise if this wasn't the case, I suppose - but to the point where it can become a little bogged down in detail. Charting his decline from rich weirdo to rich OCD addict inmate, the book is its howard hughes book biography verbose about the point where Hughes had lost control of his empire.

I assume this is because a lot of the business proceedings at that point were on public record. It's illuminating but at the same time almost overwhelming to receive so much information when the book may have been able to have been snipped down a fair whack to allow it to flow in the same way as the earlier chapters - detailing Hughes' life up until the 'Spruce Goose' phase - did.

I thought I knew a lot about Hughes given my childhood background as an aviation nerd, but there's so much more in here. Central is the removal of the concept of Hughes as a genius - his mastery of PR and spin was only outpaced by the lengths to which his handlers would go to sate his OCD- and paranoia-driven desires. In the end, we're presented with the sad picture of a failed industrialist Miss Havisham, rotting away on drugs while his Mormon handlers proclaim business as usual.

Ashley Reid. I don't usually read biographies or autobiographies unless I am a fan of the person or if it is highly recommended. This was neither to me, I only started reading it because I saw it in the library's returns pile and I was in a reading slump with no idea what I wanted to read. Despite that, I'm glad I picked it up, because it was one of the most interesting biographies I've read in a while.

Author 13 books followers. Howard Hughes sort of represents the American dream nightmare. Talented yet misguided in business affairs. Sort of a dreamer who didn't have a practical bone in his body - yet had his Dad's money to do things. He wanted to create, yet eventually destroyed everything he put his hands on. The great thing about this book is that they go into the money deals that were made and one wants to shake his shoulders and say to Hughes 'don't do it!

They are both hysterical and very sad at the same time. Stuff like having his driver go to the newsstand and pick out a paper in the middle of the pile because it's unlikely it was touched by human hands. As another reviewer pointed out, this book is incredibly detailed and painstakingly researched. The author has taken great care mapping out the entirety of the Hughes empire, including his ties to a who's who of Hollywood, politics, the mob, and beyond.

If you have the patience for it, this is a fascinating read. The sheer magnitude of HRH's influence, even when he had become a virtual prisoner of his own design, is mind boggling. True, there is a staggering amount of information to digest but, such is the life of billionaire industrialists. Whatever his eccentricities, Hughes accomplished more in one life than most could ever dream.

It is worth wondering, what he may have been capable of had his addictions and mental instability been kept at bay. Paul formerly known as Current. Although very interesting, this book suffers from flow and consistency issues. Parts of the story are very focused on "following the money" of the empire and the various tax games, political monetary donations such as involvement in Watergateand ways in which employees variously robbed, embezzled, or took advantage of Hughes late in life.

Hughes actual life and thoughts are sometimes lost in this chain of influence. Thus the story fragments into parts about Hughes the person and parts about the Hughes Empire. It will be interesting to see if later biographers are able to not only stitch these two parts of Hughes together, but also able to delve into the equally interesting biographies of the people who ran the empire.

Very interesting book. Hughes lived 70 years in total, but more than half of the book is devoted to the last ten years of Hughes life. During the late 's and early 's, Hughes, who hasn't been seen in public in almost ten years, lives the life of a total recluse, in a "germ free" prison he has built for himself. Naked, only bathing maybe once or twice a year, with hair down to his backside, beard down to his navel, eating maybe once a day at the most, and storing his urine in Mason jars.

Throughout his life, though, Hughes had suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder, among other mental-health conditions. He would incinerate his entire wardrobe if he thought there were too many germs in his house and wash his hands until they bled. The authors accomplish the gargantuan task of separating fact from fiction in the very complex life of Howard Hughes.

It is a bona fide biography that reads more like fiction than real life-such was the world of Howard Hughes. For one brief shining moment, Hughes was considered one of America's premier aviators, breaking flying records, but then falling out of grace with government and the aviation industry for breaking contract deadlines. In the long run, Howard Hughes would become a grand failure in the world of big business.

Bartlett and Steel show the reader a man who had everything to live for, good looks, fame, fortune, power and prestige, but he was unable to triumph over his social and physical phobias that led to psychological, emotional, and physical illnesses and to his final descent into the dwellings of the insane. Hughes' deep mistrust of all people-even family, worked against him and led to his demise and the loss of his billion-dollar empire by the very people whose job it was to safeguard him and his empire.

Angelino Desmet. Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness is painstakingly thorough. The saying: "It's all in the details" could've easily been instigated by this astounding piece of work. Better yet, encyclopedia. The level of meticulousness does have its downside: boringness. Although his life wasn't uneventful, it—being his post aviation years—can be rather dull due to Hughes relentless refusal to learn from his mistakes.

Bound to repeat himself, he masterfully does so, until his death. There is one adage in the book which aptly compresses the pages into a single line: "Same baby, different diaper. Although I read every line, I couldn't suppress my frustration regarding its legislative nature. Unconsciously I dozed off. I never imagined money, greed, and the legal system could be so intertwined.

Yet I was wrong. My disappointment by the lack of scientific thinkers in governments has been reinforced once again. Objectively, as previously stated, this is an impressive book. One that without a doubt many people rightfully love to read. Subjectively, it was tedious, because of my disinterest in law.

Howard hughes book biography: Howard Hughes has always fascinated the

A tl;dr for the second half would have sufficed. Money buy wealth one doesn't earn, fame that's an illusion, loyalty without true friendship, public admiration given no empathy; money also allow one pursue self-interest with no concern of others, cultivate human nature to evil growth, disclose the absurdity of life, and make HRH a spectacular loser!

Besides HHMI being the highest honor one can get in life science research as I was raised to admire, Marty and Leo's "Aviator" supposedly inspired by this book lured me to dig into HRH's real life, both HHMI in my mind and Leo's portrayal are incomplete or fictional or deviation from the reality. I became interested in Howard Hughes after seeing 'The Aviator' edited version!

He was definitely a womanizer and manipulator but you can't deny his courage and determination in both the field of movie production and aviation. The 'Spruce Goose' is on display at an air museum in McMinnville, Oregon which was very close to where we used to live so it had a lot more meaning for me when I got to see the plane after reading about Howard Hughes.

Abhinav Pandey. The guy was so fucked up! But you take the good and leave the bad. In that sense, his eccentricity led him do things a sane person couldn't have done. He was a genius but not a pragmatic one. You don't need to read the whole book because in the end it becomes quite painful to go through the routine logs and know the multitude of characters.

Good thing I'm reading this 2 weeks until Christmas. Nothing says Merry Christmas like a pg book on aviation and germaphobic warfare. I'm not complaining though. No one can pull off ocd sexier than Howard Hughes. Vincent O'Neil. Author 22 books 42 followers. This is one of the most exhaustively researched biographies I've ever read. Considering the level of secrecy that surrounded Hughes's final decades, that's a true achievement.

As Howard Hughes was an extremely reclusive powerbroker in America, we can finally begin to see his impact in the influences that he had over the country up until his death. Hughes after howard shares a story of Howard Hughes after his involvement with the aircraft company. Many people across the world have heard of Howard Hughes but Dr.

Kenneth Richardson details what happened in the year in which Howard Hughes disappeared from his own company. The Hughes aircraft Company began in the year and it quickly became one of the largest sellers of military electronics in the entire world.

Howard hughes book biography: Popular Howard Hughes Books

This book explores the complex mechanisms in place that led Howard Hughes to leave his own company and just how on the forefront the company was for its innovation and its electronic prowess. This intimate love details the tragic downfall of Howard Hughes and how his closest advisor betrayed him. This intimate look details how eccentric Howard Hughes became in the late stages of his life and how his condition continued to worsen.

As an extremely influential man throughout American history, not much is known about the state of his decline and some of his final years. This look behind the veil truly shows how Hughes continued to operate long after his fall from power.

Howard hughes book biography: The book provides an in-depth

The investigation is a story of a former FBI agent that details connections that Howard Hughes had within American history. That you had a controversial meeting in private which would eventually lead to a handwritten note supposedly from Howard Hughes. The Hughes will apparently named Dummar as his sole heir from this meeting. As Hughes was a billionaire even at the time of his death, this investigation is considered to be one of the greatest American mysteries of all time.

Here is truly had one of the most contested wills in American history and in this book you can discover whether Melven Demmar truly is the heir of Howard Hughes. This is a well documented and well researched read with short stories from the history of Howard Hughes and some of his greatest accomplishments. With accused links to Bugsy Spiegel, the John F.

Kennedy murders and more, this is a book that portrays Hughes in an entirely new way and showcases his involvement in US politics is one of the wealthiest people in the United States. With secrets that have remained locked up for over 31 years, this is a book that has some of the most exclusive stories about Howard Hughes and his involvement with the United States government.

Including inspirational quotes with his view on partners and some of the statements that Hughes would have issued later in his life, this book details his rise to a living folk hero to his eccentric retirement. As a multitalented millionaire making headlines in the late 20s, his company was one of the top producers in the United States by the mids.

Taking the inheritance that he earned in his teens, by middle age he was able to become one of the richest men in America. This book details how Howard Hughes was able to amass an howard hughes book biography, become worldwide yet still be considered close to no one. Donald J. Porter looks into the life and times of Howard Hughes from the perspective of aviation first.

As Howard Hughes was a politically involved billionaire that was known for his secrecy, the public continue to be fascinated by him and his celebrity status. Behind the scenes and behind all of the secrecy, Hughes was a true innovator. His company was responsible for some of the greatest technological leaps in our world. One of the most historically significant innovations that Howard Hughes and his company made were Hughes helicopters.

This division of his airline company has all but fallen into complete secrecy. The Hughes aircraft Company is actually responsible for producing products like the Apache helicopter. We study the legacy of Howard Hughes and how his company has evolved from the second world war up until the s. Rich with technological breakthroughs and written by technical expert, this is the perfect book on Howard Hughes if you are interested in studying him from a technical mindset and from the perspective innovation in aircraft.

Howard: The amazing Mr. Hughes is a book written by Noah Dietrich. Experienced author Graham M. Simons turns his attention to the production process that saw this colossus take shape. In words and images, all aspects of this process are illustrated. We have shots taken during the initial design period, images of the craft under construction, and photographs taken at the test flights.

In addition, Simons has been gifted access to the highly prized and rarely seen aircraft manual produced for the aircraft, content from which has been extracted and used to supplement the narrative. His wealth was legendary. His passions were bizarre. Now, the truth about the money, the madness, and the man behind the enigma. Howard Hughes is one of the best-known and least-understood men of our times — famed for his wealth, his daring, and his descent into madness.

Bestselling biographer Charles Higham goes beyond the enigma to reveal the incredible private life of Howard Hughes:.