I’ve received the royal treatment since that box opened. January 2010: I was taken off the shelf, out of my box and freed of my folder by archivist David Kessler at The Bancroft Library! It turns out that author Bernadette Murphy, an Englishwoman living in France, had a hunch that I existed, and that I was something special. I am in box 91, which sounds like a very important number. But, not to worry, I am confident something big awaits me one day. It’s quite dark in here (they say the dark is good for me in my old age). I’m in a folder, in a box, on a shelf in the Library’s archives. I am part of a collection of over 550 boxes that consist of Stone’s correspondence research material, drafts, publicity, and ephemera related to his writings professional and personal papers and subject files, along with some of Jean’s papers.Īs luck would have it, I am now sharing my new home with other notes and documents that Stone gathered about Van Gogh. I am excited that some familiar faces will be joining me in the famed archives at The Bancroft Library. I’m told the biographical novel about Van Gogh, published in 1934, has the potential to jumpstart Stone’s writing career.ĭecember 1994: After enjoying many years with Stone and his wife, Jean, I am now on my way to UC Berkeley, where Stone received his bachelor’s degree and pursued a doctorate. Stone had been in Europe researching Van Gogh for an upcoming book, Lust for Life, and that is just where I met him. I sincerely hope that you won’t fail to glorify the genius of this remarkable painter, as he deserves.ġ930-1994: I am now in the possession of Stone and, as it turns out, I am going to be part of something big. I’m happy to be able to give you the information you have requested concerning my unfortunate friend Van Gogh. Félix Rey, crafted the document in black ink specifically for author Irving Stone, and included the note: The doctor who treated the artist decades ago, Dr. I now have not one, but two, drawings that illustrate how much of Vincent Van Gogh’s ear was cut off on December 23, 1888.

I had been patiently awaiting my chance to become something. Here is the story of its 86-year path, from a first-person perspective of the document itself …Īugust 1930: I started out today, August 18, as a piece of ordinary paper in a prescription pad. The document will make a television appearance in the PBS special Van Gogh’s Ear on Wednesday, Dec. Over the next 86 years, the note traveled from its home in Arles, France, to the United States with author Irving Stone and eventually to The Bancroft Library in Berkeley. 18, 1930, Vincent Van Gogh’s doctor drafted a small, unassuming note describing the artist’s severed ear. (Images courtesy Van Gogh Museum and Bancroft Library) Van Gogh's self portrait, the Bancroft Library document on Van Gogh’s severed ear, and the artist’s depiction of Dr.

Vincent van gogh irving stone