Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness by Donald Barlett is the gripping biography of the famed eccentric billionaire and film producer. Drawing from personal accounts, interviews, and archival material, Donald Barlett explores the inner work ings of the enigmatic Hughes, tracing a life that was larger than life, and dizzyingly tragic.
The life of Howard Hughes began in the Houston, Texas of 1925. Growing up steeped in wealth and privilege, he was educated at the prestigious Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. In 1927, Hughes inherited the majority of his father's fortune, which he then invested widely in movies and real estate. This made him one of the richest people in the United States, but his incredible wealth was not enough to save him from the pain of losing his mother at an early age.
By the 1940s, Hughes began what would become a long and mysterious downward spiral. The first sign of this was his failed attempt to produce a gigantic, high-budget blockbuster movie, initially titled "Hell's Angels," which lost him millions. Later, he would go on to display greater missteps: using his fortune to buy controlling interests in several companies (which caused significant losses), playing a feud with Hollywood producer Jack Warner, and finally, fleeing the United States for tax purposes in the midst of the Vietnam War.
Throughout it all, Hughes maintained an obsessive focus on every detail of his businesses and personal life. To many, he was an inspiration, while to others, Hughes was a difficult boss, notorious for his extreme secrecy. As his wealth grew in the 1940s and 1950s, so too did his reclusiveness, which ultimately spiraled into a total isolation from the world.
As the decades progressed, Hughes seemed to lose touch with reality. He became increasingly paranoid, and obsessively checked for cleanliness by changing his clothes several times a day or using Kleenex to hold door knobs. He rarely interacted with anyone, and when he did, it was through memos with incomprehensible jargon. Barlett provides detailed accounts of Hughes’s mental decline, exploring the roots of his introversion, the increasingly bizarre behavior, and the never-ending legal entanglements.
One of the most captivating aspects of Barlett's biography is his exploration of Hughes’s legacy. Despite his madness, Hughes left behind an incredible legacy that remade an entire industry. Hughes's influence can be seen in the industry he helped create—from modern aerospace to motion pictures—and in the people he helped raise up—including such legendary figures as Roy Cohn, Paul R. Williams, Jackie Cochran, and Jean Peters. From this legacy, a number of enduring lessons can be distilled, particularly in terms of ambition and entrepreneurship, but also in the importance of staying true to one's ethical code.
Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness is an outstanding biography of a complex and enigmatic figure, who continues to inspire and fascinate to this day. Barlett's masterful narrative sheds light on the inner work ings of Hughes's psyche, as well as what drove his extreme behavior, rendering a life that was as unorthodox as it was extraordinary.
