Bare-Faced Messiah by Russell Miller

I've been re-reading this book, which I bought and first read when it was published 21 years ago.  It is rather unfortunately out of print now, but is available online.  L. Ron Hubbard was a pulp fiction writer who, after a less than distinguished wartime career in the US Navy, reinvented himself though Dianetics, later used as the basis for the pretty bizarre Scientology cult. [Note: Scientologists react to criticism fairly aggressively.  Critical websites may be attacked by litigation or other means.  For example, note the warnings at the Wikipedia page, and this article at The Register and entries about Scientology at Wikileaks]