The Orson Welles Archive at the University of Michigan

This early headshot of a young Orson Welles, circa 1935, contains a unique inscription to a very special recipient, his first wife, Virginia Nicolson. It reads: "For Mrs. Orson Welles, whose husband loves her wildly." The pair met when Nicolson was a drama student at the Todd School during a summer session Welles directed there in 1934. (Image courtesy of the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan.)

Welles used this whimsical drawing by his wife, Virginia Nicolson, as a Christmas card in 1937 to announce the pending birth of their daughter, Chris. The image includes their cocker spaniel, aptly named Budget. As an adult, Chris Welles Feder would donate the scrapbook containing this item and many other personal artifacts to the University of Michigan for use by historians and scholars. (Image courtesy of the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan.)

Orson Welles was a man of many talents: writer, director, actor, and, as we see here, illustrator. This image renders Welles' own thoughts regarding costumes for his career-long obsession with Don Quixote, a film that remained unfinished at his death. (Image courtesy of the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan.)

Welles was in Malaga, Spain, in 1961 when he sent this terse telegram to his partner, Alessandro Tasca. Welles was disappointed that the wedding of Tasca's daughter would take precedence over their long-planned shoot in Pamplona. According to Welles, Tasca's unacceptable behavior demonstrated a part-time commitment to their partnership. Several longer letters followed. (Image courtesy of the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan.)

This 1945 image features the young father with his two daughters. Chris Welles Feder (right) was the artist's first child from his marriage to Virginia Nicolson. The infant in his arms, Rebecca Welles Manning, was born of his brief, passionate, and stormy union with the actress Rita Hayworth. (Image courtesy of the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan.)

This page of handwritten dialogue was recorded "wild" on Aug. 11, 1969, for a sort of travelogue television special Welles was filming for CBS. Budget problems rendered the project unfinished. (Image courtesy of the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan.)

This handwritten letter, dated Oct. 30, 1938, was addressed to executives at New York's Mercury Theater and Columbia Broadcasting Corp. from a disgruntled fan who missed the disclaimer that opened Welles' rado play about the alien invasion at the center of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. The writer states, "If you want to know how successful it was, it was the worst thing that occurred in my life. I was just about willing to commit sucicide. I'm not exaggerating it one bit. I really don't think you should have anything so horrid & realistic on the radio." (Image courtesy of the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan.)

The U-M collection includes Welles' own script pages from Heart of Darkness, which appears to be the first screenplay he ever wrote. It was an ambitious undertaking, since adapting Joseph Conrad's prose to film was no easy task. Welles storyboarded the following sequence right onto his own script: "(The camera holds on a med. closeup of the secretary, then pans down to an insert of the document, which the secretary is handing to Marlow, and which during the ensuing narration, Marlow's hand is seen to sign) MARLOW: A compassionate secretary full of desolation and sympathy made me sign a document. I believe I undertook amongst other things not to disclose any trade secrets. Well, I'm not going to." (Image courtesy of the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan.)