Irving Stone, whose pioneering biographical novels of Vincent Van Gogh, Mi- helangelo, Sigmund Freud and others brought history to life for millions, is dead. He was 86.
Stone died of heart failure late Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. His family said he had been receiving treatment for cancer there since July 24.With the 1934 epic "Lust For Life" about Van Gogh, Stone perfected the art form of telling history with a human focus. During the next half-century, he wrote a stream of best-selling biographical novels, including "The Agony and the Ecstasy."
Doubleday & Co. Inc., Stone's publisher, estimates his books have sold more than 30 million copies.
"The only thing he ever wanted to do was write books, and that's what he did all his life, and we did it together," his wife and editor, Jean, said Sunday.
"That will be his immortality - the books he left."
She said her husband had been working on a biographical novel before he was hospitalized, and she hoped it could be completed by someone else. She didn't disclose the subject.
Stone's fictionalized portraits include Jack London in "Sailor on Horseback," Abraham and Mary Lincoln in "Love is Eternal," Michelangelo in "The Agony and the Ecstasy," Sigmund Freud in "The Passions of the Mind," Charles Darwin in "The Origin," Andrew and Rachel Jackson in "The President's Lady" and Eugene V. Debs in "Adversary in the House."
Herbert Mitgang, cultural correspondent for The New York Times, said Stone will be remembered as a literary pioneer.
Stone was born in San Francisco on July 14, 1903, to Charles and Pauline Tennenbaum. His parents divorced when he was 7, and he took his stepfather's surname when his mother remarried.
He began writing short stories at age 9. He said the following year, he was inspired to pursue a writing career after he read Jack London's largely autobiographical novel about a self-made writer, "Martin Eden."
He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1923 with a political science degree and earned a master's degree from the University of Southern California on an economics fellowship.
In addition to his wife, Stone is survived by their son, Kenneth, and daughter, Paula.
A private memorial service will be held at Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles this week. There will be no funeral.