Which Howard Hughes biographies are worth the time? Why–accuracy or entertainment?
Empire: the Life, Legend and Madness of Howard Hughes, Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele (1979). The book, by the deans of American investigative reporting, covers his descent into madness in vivid detail. Years after reading it, I can remember the morgue x-ray image of his arm, showing the broken-off hypodermic needles from the codeine injections. “Such was the mystery and power surrounding his life that when he was pronounced dead on arrival at Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, on April 5, 1976, his fingerprints were lifted by a technician from the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office and forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington,” write Bartlett and Steele. “Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon, for federal tax purposes, wanted to be sure that the dead man was indeed Howard Hughes. After comparing the fingerprints with those taken from Hughes in 1942, the FBI confirmed the identity.” He had not been seen publicly or photographed for 20 years.
