steven naifeh and gregory white smith galvanized readers with their astonishing jackson pollock an american saga winner of the pulitzer prize for biography a book acclaimed for its miraculous research and overwhelming narrative power now naifeh and smith have written another tour de forcean exquisitely detailed compellingly readable and ultimately heartbreaking portrait of creative genius vincent van goghworking with the full cooperation of the van gogh museum in amsterdam naifeh and smith have accessed a wealth of previously untapped materials while drawing liberally from the artists famously eloquent letters they have also delved into hundreds of unpublished family correspondences illuminating with poignancy the wanderings of van goghs troubled restless soul naifeh and smith bring a crucial understanding to the largerthanlife mythology of this great artisthis early struggles to find his place in the world his intense relationship with his brother theo his impetus for turning to brush and canvas and his move to provence where in a brief burst of incandescent productivity he painted some of the bestloved works in western artthe authors also shed new light on many unexplored aspects of van goghs inner world his deep immersion in literature and art his erratic and tumultuous romantic life and his bouts of depression and mental illnessthough countless books have been written about van gogh and though the broad outlines of his tragedy have long inhabited popular culture no serious ambitious examination of his life has been attempted in more than seventy years naifeh and smith have recreated van goghs life with an astounding vividness and psychological acuity that bring a completely new and sympathetic understanding to this unique artistic genius whose signature images of sunflowers and starry nights have won a permanent place in the human imagination868 pages of text 953 pages with notes