Orson Welles in Focus

Texts and Contexts

James N. Gilmore and Sidney Gottlieb

Narrated by Alan Sewell

Available from Audible

Book published by Indiana University Press

Through his radio and film works, such as The War of the Worlds and Citizen Kane, Orson Welles became a household name in the United States. Yet Welles’s multifaceted career went beyond these classic titles and included lesser-known but nonetheless important contributions to television, theater, newspaper columns, and political activism. Orson Welles in Focus: Texts and Contexts examines neglected areas of Welles’s work, shedding light on aspects of his art that have been eclipsed by a narrow focus on his films. By positioning Welles’s work during a critical period of his activity (the mid-1930s through the 1950s) in its larger cultural, political, aesthetic, and industrial contexts, the contributors to this volume examine how he participated in and helped to shape modern media. This exploration of Welles in his totality illuminates and expands our perception of his contributions that continue to resonate today.

James N. Gilmore is Associate Instructor in the Media School at Indiana University. He is editor (with Matthias Stork) of Superhero Synergies: Comic Book Characters Go Digital.

Sidney Gottlieb is Professor of Media Studies at Sacred Heart University. He is the editor of Hitchcock on Hitchcock: Selected Writings and Interviews and (with Richard Allen) the Hitchcock Annual.

REVIEWS:

“Anyone who thinks they know Welles will have their eyes opened by this book.”

—Paul Heyer, author of The Medium and the Magician: Orson Welles, the Radio Years

“This is a fascinating collection, several of the contributions making the reader wish for more.”

—Film International