Lust For Life.

STONE, Irving [Kirk Douglas].

$2,000.00

Item Number: 110767

New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1934.

First edition of this classic, bestselling biographical novel of Vincent Van Gogh. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Rachel Ann Starr With my best wishes Irving Stone.” Additionally signed by actor Kirk Douglas, who starred as Van Gogh in the 1956 film. Bookplate of the recipient, some rubbing and wear to the cloth in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Arthur Hawkins, Jr. Rare and desirable signed by both Stone and Douglas.

The most famous of all of Stone’s novels, it is the story of Vincent Van Gogh—brilliant painter, passionate lover, and alleged madman. Here is his tempestuous story: his dramatic life, his fevered loves for both the highest-born women and the lowest prostitutes, and his paintings—for which he was damned before being proclaimed a genius. The novel takes us from his desperate days in a coal mine in southern Belgium to his dazzling years in the south of France, where he knew the most brilliant artists (and the most depraved whores). Finally, it shows us Van Gogh driven mad, tragic, and triumphant at once. No other novel of a great man’s life has so fascinated the American public for generations. “A story of excruciating power" (The New York Times). It was basis for the 1956 film directed by Vincente Minnelli and produced by John Houseman, starring Kirk Douglas as Van Gogh, James Donald as his brother Theo, Pamela Brown, Everett Sloane and Anthony Quinn, who won an Oscar for his performance as Van Gogh's fast friend and rival Paul Gauguin.