Although he published 20 novels, he is best known for an "autobiography" allegedly written as told to Irving by billionaire recluse Howard Hughes.

[3] After graduating in 1947 from Manhattan's selective High School of Music and Art, Irving attended Cornell University.

Working as a copy boy at The New York Times, Irving wrote his first novel, On a Darkling Plain (1956), published by Putnam.

[4] After returning to Ibiza, Irving became friendly with Hungarian art forger Elmyr de Hory.

[8] In 1962, after a year spent traveling around the world and living in a houseboat in Kashmir, Irving moved back to Ibiza[8] with his third wife, Fay Desch, an English photographic model, and their newborn son, Josh.

[12] In 1970, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Irving met with Richard Suskind, a longtime friend who was an author of children's books.

[19] Hughes' lawyer, Chester Davis, immediately filed suit against McGraw-Hill, Life, Clifford Irving, and Dell Publications,[18] while Swiss authorities investigated the "Helga R. Hughes" bank account:[24] the Irvings by this time had returned to their home on the Balearic island of Ibiza.

[27] In July 2005, filming began in Puerto Rico and New York on The Hoax, starring Richard Gere as Irving, Alfred Molina as Suskind, and Marcia Gay Harden as Edith.

The film, directed by Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallström, opened on April 6, 2007, with a DVD release following on October 16.

[31] In spring 2012, the movie rights to Irving's nonfiction book, Fake!, were optioned by Steve Golin and Anonymous Content LLP.

[citation needed] In 2012 Irving formatted and placed 12 of his books, including one unpublished novel, for sale on Kindle and Nook.

Irving was open about it [clarification needed], and offered the text of the hoax autobiography for sale in book form.

[35] In November 2014 the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas announced that they had acquired all of Irving's literary and personal papers.

Among the trove is Irving's correspondence with lawyers, publishers, colleagues and friends such as Graham Greene, Robert Graves and Irwin Shaw, his personal diaries and prison journals, many manuscript drafts, legal documents from lawsuits and from his 1972 bankruptcy, portions of his Howard Hughes manuscript and extensive handwritten notes and musings.

Don Carleton, executive director at the Briscoe Center, remarked of Clifford Irving that he was "an important writer who has lived a colorful and controversial life, which has been a major source of inspiration for much of his literary work".