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<html> <head> <title>Philip Van Doren Stern</title> <meta name="googlebot" content="noodp"> <meta name="robots" content="noodp"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="/silly-nndb-icon.png" /><style type="text/css">  </style></head> <body bgcolor=#ffffff> <center> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr><td valign=top><table width=550 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td bgcolor=white><table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" background="/nndb.gif"> <tr> <td rowspan="2" align="left" valign="top"><a href="http://www.nndb.com/"><img src="/title.gif" width="260" height="50" border=0 alt="NNDB"></a></td> <td><table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"> <tr align="center"> <td width="25%" nowrap>This is a beta version of NNDB</td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="middle"> <form action="http://search.nndb.com/search/nndb.cgi" method="get"> <input type="hidden" name="nndb" value="1"></input> Search: <select name="omenu"> <option value="unspecified" selected>All Names</option> <option value="living">Living people</option> <option value="dead">Dead people</option> <option value="bands">Band Names</option> <option value="books">Book Titles</option> <option value="movies">Movie Titles</option> <option value="fulltext">Full Text</option> </select> for <input name="query" value="" size=24 maxlength=96> <input type=submit value="Search"> </form></td> </tr> </table>        </td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=red height=2></td></tr><map name=fool><area coords="102,0,240,14" href="/people/890/000206272/bibliography/" alt="bibliography"></map><tr bgcolor=F0F0F0><td bgcolor=F0F0F0 style="padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px;"><img src="/red-profile-2.gif" align="right" height=15 width=240 border=0 usemap=#fool> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=100%><tr><td bgcolor=F0F0F0>Philip Van Doren SternBorn: <a href="/lists/771/000106453/" class=proflink>10-Sep</a>-<a href="/lists/899/000105584/" class=proflink>1900</a> Birthplace: <a href="/geo/738/000198144/" class=proflink>Wyalusing, PA</a> Died: <a href="/lists/099/000106778/" class=proflink>31-Jul</a>-<a href="/lists/494/000106176/" class=proflink>1984</a> Location of death: <a href="/geo/704/000069497/" class=proflink>Sarasota, FL</a> Cause of death: Heart Failure Gender: Male Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Author, <a href="/lists/197/000068990/" class=proflink>Historian</a>Nationality: United States Executive summary: It's A Wonderful LifeHistorian and editor Philip Van Doren Stern wrote several respected treatises on the American Civil War, and biographies of <a href="/people/332/000024260/">Abraham Lincoln</a>, <a href="/people/820/000031727/">John Wilkes Booth</a>, and <a href="/people/469/000022403/">Edgar Allan Poe</a>. He also wrote several short stories in the genre of science fiction and fantasy, including the work for which he is best remembered, "The Greatest Gift", about a suicidal man who meets his guardian angel and sees what his town would look like if he had never been born. It was the basis for <a href="/people/459/000032363/">Frank Capra</a>'s 1946 classic It's a Wonderful Life. Though several of the story's supporting characters (Old Man Potter, the absent-minded Uncle Billy, the floozy Violet) were embellishments for the movie, the basics of the story are unmistakable in the written version. Though Stern was a successful writer before and after "The Greatest Gift", he said that he found writing the story exceedingly difficult, and considered his first draft terrible and his second draft not much better. He let the story sit on a shelf for five years before writing a third draft he deemed acceptable, but even then his agent was unable to sell the story. Stern then had 200 copies printed and sent as a 4,000-word Christmas gift to his friends, family, and a few business associates -- one of whom forwarded his copy to an acquaintance at <a href="/company/803/000163314/">RKO Radio Pictures</a>, where it came to Capra's attention.Father: I. U. Stern (traveling salesman) Mother: Anne Van Doren Stern Sister: Miriam Stern Sister: Henrietta Stern Farr Wife: Lillian Stern Daughter: Marguerite Stern Robinson     University: <a href="/edu/485/000068281/">Rutgers University</a>     <a href="/company/122/000117768/">Simon & Schuster</a> Editor     <a href="/lists/905/000108581/">Bavarian Ancestry</a> Paternal Author of books: An Introduction to Typography (<tt>1932</tt>, non-fiction) The Breathless Moment: The World's Most Sensational News Photos (<tt>1935</tt>, with Herbert Ashbury) The Case of The Thing in the Brook (<tt>1937</tt>, novel, as Peter Storme) The Man Who Killed Lincoln: The Story of John Wilkes Booth and His Part in the Assassination (<tt>1939</tt>, biography) The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln (<tt>1940</tt>, biography) Abraham Lincoln Seventy-Five Years After (<tt>1940</tt>, non-fiction) How to Torture Your Friends (<tt>1941</tt>, novel, as Peter Storme with Paul Stryfe) Travelers in Time (<tt>1947</tt>, short stories) The Drums of Morning (<tt>1948</tt>, novel) Tales of Horror and the Supernatural (<tt>1948</tt>, short stories, with <a href="/people/951/000050801/">Arthur Machen</a>) The Midnight Reader (<tt>1948</tt>, short stories) Tin Lizzie: The Story of the Fabulous Model T Ford (<tt>1955</tt>, non-fiction) An End to Valor: The Last Days of the Civil War (<tt>1958</tt>, non-fiction) Secret Missions of the Civil War (<tt>1959</tt>, non-fiction) They Were There: The Civil War in Action as Seen by Its Combat Artists (<tt>1961</tt>, non-fiction) Soldier Life in the Union and Confederate Armies (<tt>1961</tt>, with John Davis Billings and Carlton McCarthy) Prologue to Sumter: The Beginnings of the Civil War (<tt>1961</tt>, non-fiction) Robert E. Lee: The Man and the Soldier (<tt>1963</tt>, biography) The Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin (<tt>1964</tt>, <a href="/people/451/000048307/">Harriet Beecher Stowe</a>) When the Guns Roared: World Aspects of the American Civil War (<tt>1965</tt>, non-fiction) Beyond Paris: A Touring Guide to the French Provinces (<tt>1967</tt>, with Lillian Stern) Strange Beasts & Unnatural Monsters (<tt>1968</tt>, short stories) The Other Side of the Clock: Stories Out of Time, Out of Place (<tt>1969</tt>, short stories) The Annotated Walden (<tt>1970</tt>, <a href="/people/468/000022402/">Henry David Thoreau</a>) Henry David Thoreau: Writer and Rebel (<tt>1972</tt>, biography) The Beginnings of Art (<tt>1973</tt>, non-fiction) Edgar Allen Poe: Visitor from the Night of Time (<tt>1973</tt>, biography) The Greatest Gift (<tt>1996</tt>, short story, published posthumously as book) Do you know something we don't? <a href="http://commentary.nndb.com/submit/feedback/?id=206272" rel="nofollow">Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile</a> Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications </td></tr></table> </td></tr> </table> </td> <td width=180 align="center" valign="top" style="padding: 0px 0px 8px 25px;"></td></tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>