Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters - The Definitive Biography of the First American Billionaire

xii, 444 pp. Sporting a somewhat mysterious subtitle, as billionaire recluse Howard Hughes seems not to have kept any diaries, this biography tells the story of the man who built a huge economic empire and carried on affairs with numerous starlets, only to grow increasingly mentally unstable in his older years. Journalist Hack relies on letters, declassified F.B.I. files, memos, and the recollections of Hughes business partner, Robert Maheu, whose autobiography was cowritten with Hack.