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36-530: Irving Stone (born Tennenbaum , July 14, 1903 – August 26, 1989) was an American writer, chiefly known for his biographical novels of noted artists, politicians, and intellectuals. Among the best known are Lust for Life (1934), about the life of Vincent van Gogh , and The Agony and the Ecstasy (1961), about Michelangelo . Born Irving Tennenbaum in San Francisco , he was seven when his parents divorced. By

72-574: A foundation to support a number of charitable causes. When at home, Stone relied upon the research facilities and expertise made available to him by Esther Euler, chief research librarian at the University of California at Los Angeles . He dedicated books to her and thanked her in several of his works. According to his afterword in Lust for Life, Stone relied on Van Gogh's letters to his brother, art dealer Theo . Stone additionally did much of his research "in

108-617: A film version was made of Lust for Life , based on his 1934 novel, starring Kirk Douglas as Van Gogh. In 1965, a film was made of The Agony and the Ecstasy , starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II . Stone's 1975 book, The Greek Treasure , was the basis for the German television production Der geheimnisvolle Schatz von Troja ( Hunt for Troy , 2007). Lust for Life and Immortal Wife were published as Armed Services Editions during WWII. Biographical novel The genre rose to prominence in

144-872: A landowner and speculator, was not happy, and the two separated in 1790. According to Marcia Mullins of the Hermitage in Nashville, Tennessee, there were rumors that Lewis Robards was cruel and jealous. Believing that her husband would file a petition for divorce, she returned to the Donelson family home. In contrast, Ann Toplovich, executive director of the Tennessee Historical Society, writes that Rachel Donelson Robards knowingly left her husband for Andrew Jackson in late 1789, eloping to Spanish-controlled Natchez. When Andrew Jackson migrated to Nashville, Tennessee , in 1788, he boarded with Rachel Stockley Donelson,

180-404: A negative character is reversed and some kind of historical distortion occurs. For this reason, such novels should give the necessary information to the reader in advance. For more reflection on the different types of biographical information used in literature, see biography in literature . Rachel Jackson Rachel Jackson ( née Donelson ; June 15, 1767 – December 22, 1828)

216-409: A sweet oval face rippling with smiles and dimples." Later in life, her country manners and full figure were severely in contrast with Jackson's tall, spindly form and developed genteel manners. However, her love for her husband was unmistakable: she languished when he was away for politics, fretted when he was away at war, and doted on him when he was at home. Unlike Jackson, Rachel never liked being in

252-538: A teaching assistant in English. He met his first wife, Lona Mosk (1905–1965), who was a student at the university. On money provided by her father, Los Angeles businessman Ernest Mosk, the young couple went to Paris. Irving and Lona Stone returned to the United States in the 1930s from Europe, where he had been researching Van Gogh for six months. In 1930 he received a letter from Dr. Felix Rey, who had treated Van Gogh after

288-473: Is Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield , believed to be the biography of a person the author had known and observed very closely. Biographical novels are frequently the foundation for film adaptations into the filmographic genre of biographical film . In such novels and films, there are main stories and real characters, but changes are made in order to make the story and film more interesting. Of course, sometimes these changes become too much and, for example,

324-603: The Times , Lust for Life (the title suggested by his first wife) was rejected by seventeen publishers over three years before being published in 1934. Stone began a relationship with his secretary, Jean Factor, and after he and Lona were divorced, he and Jean married. This later marriage lasted until Stone's death in Los Angeles in 1989. Jean Stone died in 2004, aged 93. During their years together, Jean Stone edited many of his books. The Stones lived primarily in Los Angeles. They funded

360-453: The 1930s with best-selling works by authors such as Robert Graves , Thomas Mann , Irving Stone and Lion Feuchtwanger . These books became best-sellers, but the genre was dismissed by literary critics. In later years it became more accepted and has become both a popular and critically accepted genre. Some biographical novels bearing only superficial resemblance to the historical novels or introducing elements of other genres that supersede

396-478: The California governor and later Chief Justice of the United States , was published in 1948. The 1941 film, Arkansas Judge , starring Roy Rogers, was based on Stone's 1940 novel False Witness . In 1953, a popular film version was made of The President's Lady , based on Stone's 1951 novel of the same name, starring Charlton Heston as Andrew Jackson and Susan Hayward as Rachel Donelson Jackson . In 1956,

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432-453: The Jacksons full time. Andrew Jackson Donelson , son of Rachel's brother Samuel, became Jackson's protégé, and served as personal secretary to Jackson during his presidency. According to Toplovich, John Quincy Adams' presidential campaigns targeted Jackson's "passion and lack of self-control" in both 1824 and 1828 , "making it central to the argument that he would devastate the integrity of

468-427: The Jacksons never had biological children, they adopted her nephew in 1809 and named him Andrew Jackson Jr. When his father became president, Andrew Jr. assumed management of the Hermitage farm. He married Sarah Yorke of Philadelphia on November 24, 1831. In 1813, the Jacksons adopted a Creek orphan boy who was found on the battlefield of Tallushatchee with his dead mother. They named him Lyncoya . Lyncoya

504-460: The Republic and its institutions." One newspaper ran an article asking, "'Ought a convicted adulteress and her paramour husband to be placed in the highest offices of this free and Christian land?'" The publicity surrounding her and the public knowledge of what was considered a very private matter caused Rachel to sink into depression. She reputedly told a friend "I would rather be a doorkeeper in

540-553: The age of 12. Her father led about 600 people from Fort Patrick Henry to Fort Nashborough , down the Cumberland River . The Donelson family were among the first white settlers in Tennessee. Rachel attracted much attention from suitors because she was very beautiful as a young woman, described by a contemporary as having "lustrous black eyes, dark glossy hair, full red lips, brunette complexion, though of brilliant coloring, [and]

576-652: The artist cut off his own ear in December 1888. Rey, who was the subject of a portrait painting by Van Gogh, became Stone's friend; he confirmed that Van Gogh's whole ear was removed and not only the earlobe. As reported in the NY Times obituary of Stone on August 28, 1989, the Stones resided in New York's Greenwich Village where Irving finished Lust for Life , the biographical novel about Van Gogh that set his career in motion. According to

612-406: The couple a divorce. It was later revealed that he had not, meaning that her marriage to Jackson was inadvertently bigamous . They were forced to remarry in 1794 after the divorce had been finalized. She had a close relationship with her husband. She was usually anxious while he was away tending to military or political affairs. A Presbyterian , Rachel was noted for her deep religious piety. During

648-538: The deeply personal prelude to the 1828 election, she was the subject of extremely negative attacks from the supporters of Andrew Jackson's opponent, John Quincy Adams . Jackson believed that these attacks had hastened her death, and thus blamed his political enemies. Rachel Donelson was born near the Banister River , about ten miles from Chatham, Virginia , in Pittsylvania County on June 15, 1767. Her father

684-584: The divorce had never been granted. This made Rachel a bigamist and an adulteress, as well as making General Jackson, soon a politician on the rise, an adulterer. On the grounds of Rachel's abandonment and adultery, Lewis Robards was granted a divorce in 1794. At about the same time, the legitimacy of the Jackson marriage was questioned because they were married in then-Spanish-controlled Natchez, Mississippi. The Jacksons were Protestants, and only Catholic marriages were recognized as legal unions in that territory. After

720-443: The divorce was finally legalized in 1794, Andrew and Rachel wed again in a quiet ceremony at the Donelson home. Ann Toplovich of the Tennessee Historical Society argues that the above narrative, of unintentional bigamy and unintentional adultery, has concealed the fact of Rachel's agency and exercise of self-determination, and doesn't "give this strong woman credit for choosing a better husband". Toplovich explains that this narrative

756-557: The field." For example, he spent many years living in Italy while working on The Agony and the Ecstasy, a novel about Michelangelo Buonarroti. In his introduction to The Origin, Stone documents that he and his wife lived for a while at Down House (Darwin's home for the final forty years of his life) during the research and writing of that book. The Italian government lauded Stone with several honorary awards during this period for his cultural achievements highlighting Italian history. Although he

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792-611: The house of God than live in that palace in Washington." Adding to her stress, in 1828, Lyncoya Jackson died at the Hermitage. Between the scandal, her son's death, and a heart condition she spent much of the campaign depressed and crying. She died suddenly on December 22, 1828, at the age of 61 of a heart attack , given her symptoms according to Jackson: "excruciating pain in the left shoulder, arm, and breast." ; symptoms that are typically on par for heart attacks in women . That her death came immediately before Jackson left for Washington

828-460: The mother of Rachel Donelson Robards. The two became close, and shortly after, they married in Natchez, Mississippi . Rachel believed that her husband had obtained a divorce, but as it had never been completed, her marriage to Jackson was inadvertently bigamous and therefore invalid. Rachel's marital status was complicated by the distances involved and the changing governmental authorities. During

864-464: The process of Rachel and Robards's divorce, Kentucky became a state instead of a territory of Virginia, and North Carolina turned over management of the territory including Tennessee to the federal government. These complicating factors were understood by locals and the unusual circumstances of the Jackson marriage were not greatly discussed in Nashville society. In 1793, Andrew and Rachel Jackson learned that although Lewis Robards had filed for divorce,

900-430: The retelling of the historical narrative, for example Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter follows the plot devices of a vampire fiction closely. Biographical fiction often also falls within the genres of historical fiction or alternative history . Some novels that are known best for their fictional prowess, but include extensive biographical information that is less obvious to readers. A very good example of this kind

936-682: The spotlight of events. She would consistently warn her husband not to let his political accomplishments rule him; for example, after Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans , she warned Jackson that his subsequent popularity (on the scope of George Washington ) would tempt him to value his glory over his own family. She was a Presbyterian . She was also an avid reader of the Bible and religious works as well as poetry. Rachel Donelson's first marriage to Captain Lewis Robards of Harrodsburg, Kentucky ,

972-418: The time he was a senior in high school, his mother had remarried. He legally changed his last name to "Stone", his stepfather's surname. Stone said his mother instilled a passion for reading in him. From then on, he believed that education was the only way to succeed in life. In 1923, Stone received his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley . After receiving his M.A. there, he worked as

1008-586: Was Colonel John Donelson (1718–1785), co-founder of Nashville, Tennessee , and her mother was Rachel Stockley Donelson (1730–1801). Her great-grandfather Patrick Donelson was born in Scotland about 1670. She had seven brothers and three sisters: From about 1770 to 1779, her father operated the Washington Iron Furnace at Rocky Mount , Franklin County, Virginia . With her family, she moved to Tennessee at

1044-540: Was best known for his novels, Stone also wrote a number of non-fiction books. His biography of Clarence Darrow , Clarence Darrow For the Defense , about the attorney known both for his defense of thrill killers Leopold and Loeb and his defense of John T. Scopes in the 1925 Scopes "Monkey" Trial (the trial of a biology teacher who taught about evolution in Tennessee), was published in 1941. His biography Earl Warren , about

1080-543: Was buried on the grounds at the Hermitage wearing the white dress and shoes she had bought for the inaugural ball. Her epitaph, written by John Eaton , who would later become involved in the Peggy Eaton scandal during the Jackson Administration, reads: "A being so gentle and so virtuous slander might wound, but could not dishonor." The Rachel Jackson State Office Building , in Nashville, Tennessee, built in 1985,

1116-528: Was concocted during Andrew Jackson's candidacy for president in the 1828 election: in order to "combat the attacks on Jackson’s character and Rachel’s virtue, the Jackson campaign formed the Nashville Committee [...][which] published a story with a new timeline and circumstances of the Jackson marriage — the alternative facts of the Jackson campaign were that Rachel thought she was already divorced when she joined her fate to Andrew Jackson in 1791." Although

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1152-519: Was educated along with Andrew Jr., and Jackson had aspirations of sending him to West Point, as well. Political circumstances made that impossible, and he instead trained as a saddle maker in Nashville. He died of tuberculosis on June 1, 1828. Around 1817 the Jacksons adopted Andrew Jackson Hutchings who was the grandson of Rachel's sister and the son of a former business partner of Jackson's. He attended school with Andrew Jr. and Lyncoya. He then attended colleges in Washington and Virginia while Jackson

1188-400: Was more than an inconvenience; it was crippling. He held her body tightly until he was pulled away, and he lingered at the Hermitage until the latest possible date. Even though her maladies began as early as 1825, and she was a cigar smoker, Jackson always blamed his political enemies for her death. "May God Almighty forgive her murderers", Jackson swore at her funeral, "I never can." She

1224-409: Was named for her. Rachel Jackson was the title character of a 1951 historical novel by Irving Stone , The President's Lady , which told the story of her life with Andrew Jackson. In 1953, the novel was made into a film of the same name starring Susan Hayward and Charlton Heston as the Jacksons. In the 1936 film The Gorgeous Hussy (a fictionalized biography of Peggy Eaton ), Rachel Jackson

1260-532: Was president. In 1833, he married Mary Coffee, daughter of Jackson's friend John Coffee , and moved to Alabama . Hutchings died in 1841. Andrew Jackson served as the guardian for the children of Captain Edward Butler , Adjutant General and Inspector General of the United States Army from July 1793 until May 1794, and the children of Rachel's brother Samuel Donelson's son. These children did not live with

1296-520: Was the wife of Andrew Jackson , the seventh president of the United States . She lived with him at their home at the Hermitage , where she died just days after his election and before his inauguration in 1829—therefore she never served as first lady , a role assumed by her niece, Emily Donelson . Rachel Jackson was married at first to Lewis Robards in Nashville . In about 1791, she eloped with Andrew Jackson, believing that Robards had secured

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