Irving Stone and his books

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Irving Stone is a master of literary biography. On the pages of his books, the characters live a real life. In adulthood, he found his calling and, thanks to his hard work and perseverance, he created more than 25 novels about the lives of great people.

A little about the author

The writer was born in San Francisco on July 14, 1903 in a family of emigrants. About his origin, Irving Stone said that he came from a bourgeois environment. His parents owned the shop. Judging by the fact that in his childhood he worked part-time selling newspapers, delivering vegetables and a messenger, most likely it was a small shop or shop. Already at the age of six, the boy told everyone that he would become a writer, at nine he began to compose his first stories.

His talent was appreciated at school, freed from class assignments so that Irving could write. After high school, he entered the University of California. As a student, he worked as a clerk, a salesman, and played in an orchestra. After graduation, he taught economics. Science did not attract the young man, and in 1926 he preferred literary creativity to her.

Debut romance

Irving's first attempt at writing was plays, but they did not succeed as a novice writerhave brought. In the early 30s, he went to Paris to learn to write professionally. To save on a ticket, he moved to Europe as a ship's navigator.

In Paris, he visited an exhibition of W. Van Gogh and wanted to know more about the artist. After reviewing the correspondence of the famous sculptor and his brother Theo, Irving Stone learned about the terrible tragedy of this abandoned man and decided to write a book about him. The writer traveled to places associated with the life of the artist, looking for people who knew him, studied letters, diaries, documents. In 1934, a novel about the great artist "Lust for Life" was published. Irving recreated the thoughts, feelings, motives of Van Gogh's actions so realistically that when reading the novel, you are completely immersed in the world of the great master.

About Jack London

Irving's next autobiographical book was The Sailor in the Saddle, about Jack London, published in 1938. While working on it, the author studied more than 200,000 documents, the works of the writer. The author introduced self-restraint on fiction, wishing to tell about it as truthfully as possible. Stone's book is considered the best description of the life of D. London.

Gene Irving

While working on the biography of D. London, changes took place in Irving's life - in February 1934, the writer got married. Jean Factor gave birth to his children - Paula and Kenneth. She became Irving's faithful assistant and inspiration. Almost every heroine of Irving, a companion of ex alted personalities, has traits of her character.

Moral and justice

After a book about D. London, Stone again tries himself inartistic genre, he publishes the novel The False Witness (1940). It draws attention to the pressing problems of mankind - the destructive power of money, a world where justice loses its meaning. The novel, unfortunately, was not successful. The writer returned to the biographical genre.

In 1941, Irving Stone published a book about a lawyer who devoted his life to protecting the disadvantaged - "Protection - Clarence Darrow". The author shows that the love of freedom of the hero, his principles, could not but lead him to the defense of the oppressed. Humanity and intolerance for injustice made him a lawyer. He stands up for trade unions, workers' rights. The writer raises rather bold topics in the novel and concludes that democracy is impossible in a country where the labor of people is exploited.

In 1943 the book "They also raced" was published. It is filled with the author's reflections on the fate of America, stories about presidential candidates who lost the election campaign. The collection of essays was published at the height of the war, and critics responded quite favorably about them, comparing them with the latest works of S. Zweig.

America, America

Stone's next book, published in 1944, was The Immortal Wife. Here the author writes not only a biography of a famous person, but also talks about his wife. Creates a family portrait. He dedicates this work to the pioneer and explorer John Fremont and his wife Jessie. Irving Stone elevates their relationship to an ideal, talking about the great achievements that inspirelove.

In 1947 another novel "The Enemy in the House" was published, the hero of which was Eugene Debs, one of the organizers of the Socialist Party of America. You can treat the ideas he preached as you like, but the book is written with talent, in addition, it required civil courage from the author to break through ridicule and preconceived opinions.

The novel "Passion Journey", which appeared in print in 1949, is not biographical. His character is a fictional artist. But those with whom he meets in the course of the story, sculptors, artists, writers, are real people. The book was created to introduce readers to the history of painting and the legends of America.

A year later, the writer released a collection of autobiographies of famous Americans "We speak for ourselves".

American women

Stone's next book also tells about a well-known person in America - Rachel Jackson, the former wife of President E. Jackson. A woman has become an object of harassment in the metropolitan society, and Stone shows how a kind, sociable, cheerful person can turn into a closed, suspicious and wary person.

The 1954 novel "Love is Eternal" is filled with the same gloomy mood. The heroine of the book is Mary Lincoln. Judging by the reviews, Irving Stone created an image that has become one of the best female portraits. This was noted not only by readers, but by all American women - in 1968, Stone was given the American Women's Golden Trophy award.

Bestnovels

In the next book, the author goes even further, he describes not a single person, but a whole region. The novel "Worthy of My Mountains", published in 1956, tells the story of people who colonized the Far West. On the pages of the book there are a variety of personalities - from the rogue "Captain" Sutter to the tramp D. Marshall, who found the first gold in California.

Stone's best biographical novel about Michelangelo, Pains and Joys, came out in 1961. The author not only recreates the portrait of the great artist, but also perfectly describes the time in which he lived. The material that he collected turned out to be a lot for one novel, so a year later the book "I, Michelangelo, a Sculptor" was published. The writer's research was highly appreciated in Rome and he was awarded the Order of Merit. He dedicated two more works to this hero: the novel "The History of the Creation of the Pieta Sculpture" (1963) and the children's story "The Great Adventure of Michelangelo" (1965).

Other books

In 1965, the publicistic collection "Irving Stone - Reviewer" and the novel dedicated to President D. Adams "Those Who Love" were published. It goes beyond the biographical, because in it the author raises questions of duty to the country and society and addresses the origins of the nation and the American character.

In 1970 a book about Berkeley University "There Was Light" was published, and in 1971 a novel about Sigmund Freud "The Passions of the Mind" was published, according to critics, unsuccessful. did not become a literary event andthe next work "Greek Treasure" about Henry and Sophia Schliemann. The book itself is written with talent, it is fascinating and easy to read, but from the point of view of critics, the evaluation of the hero's activity is too contradictory.

In 1980, the novel "Origin" was published, which tells about Charles Darwin. The book can be called a biography of evolution. The author took into account the mistakes made in the book about Freud, and the story about Darwin turned out to be capacious, convincing and dynamic.

Stone's next book was the novel about the French painter C. Pissarro "Abysses of Glory" (1985). The author managed to create a delightful portrait of a representative of the Impressionists. Critics called Stone's work "a monumental work of genius." So Irving Stone triumphantly completed the creative path of the creator of biographical novels. The writer died in August 1989.