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Don Swaim Interviews

Audio Interview with Irving Stone

Irving Stone, from the time he was a boy, knew he would become a writer. But after failing as a short story writer and a play writer, he found his calling as a biographical novelist. Traditional biographies lack convergence and emotion, he says. His biographies transport the reader to another time. The reader becomes the subject. Stone’s most popular novel Lust for Life, which tells the story of Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, was an instant page-turner when it was published in 1935.

Stone emphasizes, however, that he bases everything he writes on facts. For example, he spent five years researching the life and times of impressionist painter Camille Pissarro before he published Depths of Glory. He even enlisted the help of his wife, who spent just as much time editing his work as he did writing it, and two secretaries, whose jobs were to organize all of his research.

To hear about Stone’s other novels, click on the link below.

Listen to the Irving Stone interview with Don Swaim, September 30, 1985
(21 min. 14 sec.)

MP3 File

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