Next Saturday, Feb. 23, at 11:15 a.m. I’ll be speaking at the U-T’s Successful Aging Exposition at the Town and Country. A writer’s reality is in his or her readers, and your e-mailbags of messages since the birth of this column have validated my mission of teachership. I love meeting my readers and listeners in person and will be hanging out throughout the entire expo for that very purpose.
The theme of Successful Aging brings to mind the gifts that age confers upon writers. I’m knocking on the door of 75, and I hope that I am writing more richly and elegantly than I ever have before. That shouldn’t be a surprise. Since being editor of my junior high school literary magazine and my high school newspaper, I’ve practiced the art and craft of writing for six decades. Aren’t we supposed to get better with practice?
When he was 89 years of age, the Greek tragedian Sophocles (496-406 B.C.) was brought before a court of law by his son, who sought to have the playwright certified as suffering from senility. In his defense, Sophocles stood before his judges and read passages from “Oedipus at Colonus,” which he had lately written but not yet staged. The court dismissed the case.
This piece of literary history demonstrates that many chronologically endowed writers have produced impressive works of literature. Katherine Ann Porter’s “Ship of Fools,” Tim LaHaye’s “Desecration” and James Michener’s “The Covenant” and “Chesapeake” have been national best-sellers by authors over 70.
At age 80, former Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham won a Pulitzer for her best-selling autobiography, her first and only book. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe completed his immortal “Faust” when he was 83. Helen Hooven Santmyer was 88 and resided in a retirement home when she gave the world “…And Ladies of the Club.” Sarah and Bessie Delany wrote their first book, “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First One Hundred Years,” when they were 103 and 101, respectively. Four years later, in 1997, Sarah published “On My Own at 107: Reflections on a Life Without Bessie.”
A life of hard labor that began at the age of 8 deprived George Dawson of an education for 90 years. He never learned to read until one day a recruiter for a local adult-literacy program knocked on the door of Dawson’s home in Dallas. “I figured if I could lay a railroad tie as well as any man and cook as well as any woman, I could learn to read as well as anyone else,” said Dawson. He overcame his initial reluctance to reveal his illiteracy, telling himself, “All your life you’ve wanted to read. Maybe this is why you’re still around.”
George Dawson learned not only to read; at age 99 he wrote his life story in “Life Is So Good.” He’d come to know the Scriptures years earlier, but, wrote Dawson, “Now I think about God smiling when He hears me read.” He died at 103, the year that he earned his GED.
These golden literary accomplishments illuminate one of the happy aspects of language in general. As our experiences with language and life deepen with age, we can become more skillful and sensitive in working with matters verbal. But like any skill, our languaging benefits from use and practice. Just as we can add muscle to our bodies even in our 90s, our abilities grow stronger with aerobics of the mind and push-ups of the brain.
So get out there and exercise your verbal muscles. Solve a crossword puzzle. Read a book. Keep a journal. Write a memoir for your children or grandchildren. Join a writers’ group. Give a talk. Try out for a play.
You’ll lead a richer and longer life.
Please send your questions and comments about language to richard.lederer@utsandiego.com www.verbivore.com