Aldous Huxley's outrageous novel features characters clearly based on real people who were still very much in the public eye in 1939, when it was first published. In particular, Jo Stoyte and his mistress Virginia Maunciple are transparent parodies of press baron William Randolph Hearst and actress Marion Davies. Stoyte's castle is a clear allusion to Hearst's famous home at San Simeon. Huxley was a friend of Orson Welles, who had only lately arrived in California (where Huxley lived) at the time of publication, and who attended Huxley's launch party for the book. Some have speculated that the book may have given Welles ideas for "Citizen Kane".
