"Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh"; Edited by Iriving Stone: My Review

One of the most popular books about Vincent written is this edited collection of Vincent's letters to his long-suffering brother Theo.  Dear Theo: An Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh (1937) begins when Vincent is full of missionary zeal and is off to the Borinage.  It goes on through his disillusion with the Church, with other artists and with life in general.  The collection was edited by Irving Stone, author of the popular fictional biography about Vincent, Lust for Life (1934.)

I'm not lucky enough to have a first edition, so this review is based on the far more available 1995 reprint with the cover shown at left.

This book is very hard going.  There are no footnotes explaining current politics, fads or nicknames.  There are also no pictures, so you need to read this in tandem with a book of Vincent's art or you could constantly Google names and painting titles.  This greatly interrupts the book's narrative flow. 

Vincent also would fall out with people he would glowingly write to his brother about in one letter and then never mention them again.  Vincent also suffered from paranoia and would describe in great detail conspiracies being plotted against him.  Since there is no mention in the book that these are just delusions, the reader does get the picture that Vincent was a long-suffering heroic target of the status quo.  He wasn't.  He was mostly ignored and survived only through the generosity of his brother and some other temporary patrons, but he was not the target of a sophisticated plot.

There are times when I wish I could've smacked Vincent upside the head.  Artistic genius or not, he was remarkably stupid.  He also would not shut up about money.  Granted, when I was homeless, I got a little obsessed over every penny I could get a hold of, but even I didn't grouse about it in every letter I sent my parents.

In conclusion, I don't recommend this book unless you are seriously nuts about Vincent and are familiar with the times Vincent lived in.