Stone Irving. Lust for Life and The Agony and the Ecstasy

Irving Stone (born Tannenbaum, July 14, 1903, San Francisco, California – August 26, 1989, Los Angeles, California) was an American writer known for his biographical novels of famous historical personalities, including Lust for Life, a biographical novel about the life of Vincent van Gogh, and The Agony and the Ecstasy, a biographical novel about Michelangelo. At the early age of seven, Stone’s parents divorced and by the time he was a senior in high school his mother had remarried. Stone legally changed his last name to that of his stepfather’s. Stone said that it was his mother who instilled a passion for reading in him. From then on he believed that education was the only way to succeed in life.In 1923, Stone received his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley.[1] In the 1960s, Stone received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Southern California, where he had previously earned a Masters Degree from the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences.Stone enjoyed a long marriage to his wife and editor on many of his works, Jean Stone. The Stones lived primarily in Los Angeles, California. During their lifetime, Stone and his wife funded a foundation to support charitable causes they believed in.When at home, Stone relied upon the research facilities and expertise made available to him by Esther Euler, head research librarian of the University of California at Los Angeles, to whom he dedicated and thanked, in addition to many others, in several of his works.Stone's main source for Lust for Life, as noted in the afterword, were Van Gogh's letters to his brother Theo. Stone additionally did much of his research "in the field". For example, he spent many years living in Italy while working on The Agony and the Ecstasy. The Italian government lauded Stone with several honorary awards during this period for his cultural achievements highlighting Italian history.Stone returned to America in the 1930s and resided in New York’s Greenwich village where he wrote the novel which would set his career in motion. His wife died in 2004.- Lust for Life (1934) is a biographical novel written by Irving Stone and is based on the life of the famous Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh and his hardships. It was adapted into a film of the same name starring Kirk Douglas, which was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning one. It is Irving Stone's first major publication and is largely based on the letters Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo. Irving also conducted a large amount of "on-field" research as is mentioned in the afterword of the book. The book is famous for the way it describes the origins of many of Vincent's famous paintings like The Potato Eaters, Sunflowers and others. Irving Stone wanted to explain the difficult life and how he began, flourished, and died as a painter.- The Agony and the Ecstasy (1961) is a biographical novel of Michelangelo Buonarroti written by American author Irving Stone. Stone lived in Italy for years visiting many of the locations in Rome and Florence, worked in marble quarries, and apprenticed himself to a marble sculptor. A primary source for the novel is Michelangelo's correspondence, all 495 letters of which Stone had translated from Italian by Charles Speroni and published in 1962 as I, Michelangelo, Sculptor. Stone also collaborated with Canadian sculptor Stanley Lewis, who researched Michelangelo's carving technique and tools.[1] The Italian government lauded Stone with several honorary awards for his cultural achievements highlighting Italian history. Stone wrote a number of biographical novels, but this one and Lust for Life are his best known, in large part because both had major Hollywood film adaptations. Part of the 1961 novel was adapted to film in The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II.