University of Southern California - El Rodeo Yearbook

“IRVING STONE One of the most prominent authors in the United States today is Irving Stone. His specialty is biographies — some of which are restricted to proven fact, and others in v^hich he allows a " controlled imagination " to fill in some gaps. He is always careful, though, to stay within the limits of conjecture and keep the spirit of historic truth. His current work. The Agony and the Ecstasy, deals with the life of Michelangelo, and has been at the top of the best-seller lists since its publication in early 1961. His first novel, Lust For Life, was published in 1934. It is the story of Vincent Van Gogh, and has since been trans- lated into twenty tongues and made into a mo- tion picture. It is the latter book that showed Stone his special talent as a biographical novel- ist, for it was piaywriting that first interested him. Shortly after obtaining his M.A. in economics at U.S.C, Stone went to Paris where he wrote seventeen plays — and sold none. Only his detec- tive stories kept him going. But while in Paris he discovered Van Gogh ' s paintings, and since then he has written the stories of Jack London, Jessie B. Fremont, Eugene V. Debs, John Noble, Mrs. Andrew Jackson, Mary Todd Lincoln, Clarence Darrow, Earl Warren, and other biographies and novels. Joseph Henry Jackson, literary editor of the San Francisco Chronicle says, " he has both dignified and popularized the biographical novel. He has done it with scholarly research, passionate belief in his characters, and creative skill to bring them to life. " [33 ”