Edith Irving, née Sommer (1935-2023), was a German painter and writer, known primarily for her involvement in the famous literary fraud of the Howard Hughes autobiography in the early 1970s. An accomplice of her then-husband, writer Clifford Irving, she played a crucial role by impersonating a fictitious "Helga R. Hughes" to deposit checks from the publisher McGraw-Hill into a Swiss bank account. Following the discovery of the deception, she was convicted and served prison sentences in both the United States and Switzerland. Her version of events and her experience were subsequently recounted in her autobiography, "The Joy-Ride" (1977). After serving her sentence, she pursued her artistic career as a painter, dedicating herself to a style that combined figurative and abstract elements. She lived for many years in Ibiza, where she continued to paint and hold several solo exhibitions, gaining independent recognition in the art world, although she remains inextricably linked to the scandal that made her famous.