The 1992 audiobook version of This Is Orson Welles was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Album.

[3] In 1961 Peter Bogdanovich organized a retrospective of Orson Welles's films, the first in the United States, for the Museum of Modern Art.

Welles was not able to attend — he was in Europe, preparing a film — but he did read the monograph Bogdanovich had written to accompany the screening and was favorably impressed by it.

Recorded at intervals in the United States, Mexico and Europe, the interviews were not to be forced into the chronological order of Welles's life.

Bogdanovich transcribed the reel-to-reel tapes, organized the interviews into a chapter, and mailed the typed copy to Welles.

[1]: xii In 1974, Orson Welles cast Bogdanovich in the role of Brooks Otterlake, a successful director, in the unreleased film The Other Side of the Wind.

[1]: xxvii For a time, the book was put on hold by Welles when he received a separate offer of $250,000 to write his memoirs.

"This was OK with me; it was his life and one of the few ways he had of getting money to pay not only for his family's expenses, but also for the real work he was doing — his many directing projects.