Clifford Irving

Clifford Michael Irving born November 5 1930 is an American author of novels and works of nonfiction but best known for using forged handwritten letters to convince his publisher into accepting a fake autobiography of reclusive businessman Howard Hughes in the early 1970s After Hughes denounced him and sued the publisher Irving confessed the hoax and was subsequently sentenced to twoandahalf years in prison serving 17 months Description above from the Wikipedia article Clifford Irving licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia