Irving Stone

Irving Stone (1903–1989) was an American writer best known for his biographical novels based on the lives of famous historical figures. Born Irving Tennenbaum in San Francisco, he received his BA from the University of California, Berkeley and his MA from the University of Southern California. His work is characterized by thorough research and a style that blends historical fact with literary plot.

Stone's breakthrough on the literary scene came with the novel Lust for Life (1934), a biography of the painter Vincent van Gogh, which was later adapted into a film. He followed this with numerous novels about historical figures, such as Agony and the Ecstasy (1961) about Michelangelo, Passions of the Mind (1971) about Sigmund Freud, and The Origin (1980) about Charles Darwin.

One of his most famous works in Croatian is The Greek Treasure, a novel about Heinrich Schliemann, the self-taught archaeologist who discovered Troy. The sequel to that novel is The Secret of Mycenae.

Stone's works are distinguished by their deep psychological characterization and faithfulness to historical sources. His work contributed significantly to the popularization of historical biography as a literary genre. He died in 1989 in Los Angeles, leaving behind a rich oeuvre that continues to inspire readers around the world today.