No American artist or entertainer has enjoyed a more dramatic rise than Orson Welles. At the age of sixteen, he charmed his way into a precocious acting debut in Dublin’s Gate Theatre. By nineteen, he had published a book on Shakespeare and toured the United States. At twenty, he directed a landmark all-black production of Macbeth in Harlem. After founding the Mercury Theatre, he mounted a radio production of The War of the Worlds that made headlines internationally. Then, at twenty-four, Welles signed a Hollywood contract granting him unprecedented freedom as a writer, director, producer, and star-paving the way for the creation of Citizen Kane, considered by many to be the greatest film in history.

Drawing on years of exhaustive research, acclaimed biographer Patrick McGilligan conjures the young man’s Midwestern background with Dickensian richness and detail: his childhood as the second son of a troubled industrialist father and a musically gifted, politically active mother; his youthful immersion in theater, opera, and magic in Chicago; his teenage adventures in the Far East, rural Ireland and Spain; and his emergence as a maverick theater artist. McGilligan delves into his relationships with mentors Thornton Wilder, Dr. Maurice Bernstein, Roger Hill; explores his partnerships with producer John Houseman and actor Joseph Cotten; reveals the truth of his marriage to actress Virginia Nicolson and rumored affairs with actresses Dolores Del Rio and Geraldine Fitzgerald (including a suspect paternity claim); and traces the story of his troubled brother, Dick Welles, whose mysterious decline ran counter to Orson’s swift ascent.

Filled with insight and revelation-including the surprising true origin and meaning of Rosebud -Young Orson is an eye-opening look at the arrival of a talent both monumental and misunderstood.