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Lastingness: The Art of Old Age Hardcover – January 24, 2011

by Nicholas Delbanco (Author)

17 ratings

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America grows older yet stays focused on its young. Whatever hill we try to climb, we're "over" it by fifty and should that hill involve entertainment or athletics we're finished long before. But if younger is better, it doesn't appear that youngest is best: we want our teachers, doctors, generals, and presidents to have reached a certain age. In context after context and contest after contest, we're more than a little conflicted about elders of the tribe; when is it right to honor them, and when to say "step aside"?

In Lastingness, Nicholas Delbanco, one of America's most celebrated men of letters, profiles great geniuses in the fields of visual art, literature, and music-Monet, Verdi, O'Keeffe, Yeats, among others - searching for the answers to why some artists' work diminishes with age, while others' reaches its peak. Both an intellectual inquiry into the essence of aging and creativity and a personal journey of discovery, this is a brilliant exploration of what determines what one needs to do to keep the habits of creation and achievement alive.

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In Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot declaims, “Old men should be explorers.” In Delbanco’s twenty-sixth book, he profiles a wide array of men and women who embodied Eliot’s edict—painters, sculptors, composers, and writers who thrived in old age. Delbanco argues for “lastingness: the quality of being lasting; continuance; duration; permanence” and discusses the life-long habits that made his subjects’ late work possible. Even if his examples do not always conform to his thesis, Delbanco’s anecdotes do exhibit his finesse as a storyteller. The great Pablo Casals, for example, drags himself to the podium, then is transformed by music. With joy we learn about the poet Hölderlin and admire the shy Italian novelist Giuseppe di Lampedusa, writing his first book and masterpiece, The Leopard, in blue notebooks while sitting in a favorite café. Rejected twice while he was alive, it was published to great acclaim after his death. Delbanco’s writing grows more urgent near the end of this intriguing study of sustained creativity. --Michael Autrey

About the Author

Nicholas Delbanco has published twenty-four books of fiction and nonfiction. His most recent novels are The Count of Concord and Spring and Fall; his most recent works of nonfiction are The Countess of Stanlein Restored and The Lost Suitcase: Reflections on the Literary Life. As editor he has compiled the work of, among others, John Gardner and Bernard Malamud. Director of the Hopwood Awards Program at the University of Michigan, he has served as Chair of the Fiction Panel for the National Book Awards, received a Guggenheim Fellowship and, twice, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (January 24, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0446199648
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0446199643
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,915,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,868 in Popular Psychology Creativity & Genius
- #9,224 in Aging (Books)
- #289,578 in Self-Help (Books)

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Nicholas Delbanco is the Robert Frost Distinguished University Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan and Chair of the Hopwood Committee. He has published twenty-five books of fiction and non-fiction. His most recent novels are The Count of Concord and Spring and Fall; his most recent works of non-fiction are The Countess of Stanlein Restored and The Lost Suitcase: Reflections on the Literary Life. As editor he has compiled the work of, among others, John Gardner and Bernard Malamud. The long-term Director of the MFA Program as well as the Hopwood Awards Program at the University of Michigan, he has served as Chair of the Fiction Panel for the National Book Awards, received a Guggenheim Fellowship and, twice, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship.

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Customers find the book's subject fascinating and appreciate its brief biographies and anecdotes. However, the phrasing receives negative feedback, with one customer describing it as excessively florid.

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Interest Phrasing

7 customers mention "Interest"4 positive3 negative

Customers have mixed reactions to the book's content, with some finding the subject fascinating and appreciating the brief biographies and interesting anecdotes, while others find it unnecessary.

"...The tales are interesting in themselves, and invite reflection on the question of a happy and productive old age, whether one is famous or not...." Read more

"...more than scattered javascript:void(0)potted, superficial, and brief biographies of or anecdotes about the artists he mentions...." Read more

"...That's interesting enough, especially to anyone unfamiliar with them, but it's not enough on which to base a book...." Read more

"...It does contain a few interesting anecdotes, but on the whole, it was a disappointment." Read more

3 customers mention "Phrasing"0 positive3 negative

Customers find the phrasing of the book awkward and excessively florid.

"...Again, stating the obvious. Add to that some excessively florid turns of phrase, unnecessary anecdotes..." Read more

"...Lastingness is a bad book, slapdash and off hand, a hodgepodge of this and that...." Read more

"...After pushing through the distraction of his awkward phrasing, I realized that most of the content comprised list upon list; anecdotes weren't..." Read more

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Ralph Lee Smith
and invite reflection on the question of a happy and productive old age
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2016
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The author has been publishing novels for 40 years. He has obviously been reflecting on the question of undiminished creative activity by seniors. The book describes the creative achievements in old age of a number of famous persons in the fields of writing,music, and painting. The tales are interesting in themselves, and invite reflection on the question of a happy and productive old age, whether one is famous or not. It's a good subject, to which he brings a lot of both information and reflection. Definitely recommended.

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S. McGee
Lots of anecdotes; no explanations or theory
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2011
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Some great artists - Monet, Goya, Liszt, Yeats, Hardy - continue to work well past the age of 70 - a phenomenon Delbanco refers to as "lastingness' and sets out to analyze in this slim volume.

But why? The answer seems to flummox Delbanco himself, judging by the way he dances nimbly around it. The book ends up feeling largely like a rehash of the events of some lives of several artists, some better known than others. That's interesting enough, especially to anyone unfamiliar with them, but it's not enough on which to base a book. At times, this reminded me of the potted Ladybird biographies of famous composers that I read at the age of 8 or so.

What's really missing is some theory underlying Delbanco's observations: that some artists stop producing great art; others shift their focus and still others continue to forge ahead despite the physical limitations that age imposes. Why the differences between them? There's a cursory discussion of aging and the brain, but it's never really linked to creativity - I'll have to look elsewhere if I want to find out if there are scientific studies being done on this subject. He observes that some artists seem to create for themselves - but why? Perhaps Delbanco is too ambitious; he needs a narrower focus to explore a part of his theory first. Ultimately, this ended up shedding no fresh light on the subject for me.

There's also a lot in here that is actively irritating. Delbanco muses that Wilfred Owen was killed in the final months of World War I while Robert Graves survived the trenches and died at 90. "Had the trajectory of enemy bullets been infinitesimally altered, the fate of these two poets might have been reversed." Well, yes, of course. And the point is? We've all mused on the random nature of circumstance; few of us try to write books based on those musings. Delbanco says J.D. Salinger's late work, never seen by outsiders, may be worse than his early promise indicated. Or it may be far better. Again, stating the obvious. Add to that some excessively florid turns of phrase, unnecessary anecdotes (I didn't really care much about the author's success in finding four-leafed clovers and found it didn't add to his central argument) and the occasional glaring error (he describes Napoleon's brother, briefly king of Spain as "Joseph Napoleon" - he was, in fact, "Joseph Bonaparte") and the book became harder to struggle through to the end.

I've rated it 2.5 stars; the only reason I'm raising it to 3 here is that Delbanco has the wit to ask the questions in the first place and I imagine this will find many readers among those who are interested in learning more about the arts on a basic level. But it doesn't deliver what it promises, by any stretch of the imagination (artistic or otherwise), and I can't recommend it.

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Drew Odom
A Book of Superficial, Brief Biographies and Glibly Sketched Readings without Any Depth
Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2017
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Lastingness is an important topic, of course, as would be any discussion of the late style and lives of composers, writers, and artists who have survived long enough to achieve both, provided, of course, that discussion is serious, searching, and profound enough to offer insights worthy of it.
Delbanco's study is not that book. In fact, it is so bad I do not understand how it got published, consisting as it does of little more than scattered javascript:void(0)potted, superficial, and brief biographies of or anecdotes about the artists he mentions. You might do as well to check out Wikipedia for all the significant information this book contains.

Furthermore, some of it is erroneous. For example, Marlowe did not die in a barroom brawl. That is an old and long discredited legend. He was murdered by an assassin hired by Sir Francis Walsingham. But that is only one of numerous mistakes.

There is an annoying amount of self-reference in the book. Delbanco seems to be as or perhaps even more interested in himself than in the various
figures he briefly discusses, mostly to no particular end. His conclusion is commonplace and obvious.

The presence or not of a late style in older or aging artists has long been thought about and discussed. It deserves a truly searching, complex, nuanced, and subtle contemporary study by someone who is aesthetically and philosophical up to the measure of the challenge. Lastingness is a bad book, slapdash and off hand, a hodgepodge of this and that. It is a pity that an important theme as been so idly, even cheaply treated.

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Inspiration from lives of yesteryear ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2019
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Accurately described and delivered with efficiency. The book actually would fall under a “must read” for anyone, yet especially for anyone retired or not post age 60 so as to keep mind, body, soul and morale enlivened and thus inspire those in their midst.

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Lastingness: The Art of Old Age Hardcover – January 24, 2011

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5.0 out of 5 stars and invite reflection on the question of a happy and productive old age

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of anecdotes; no explanations or theory

2.0 out of 5 stars A Book of Superficial, Brief Biographies and Glibly Sketched Readings without Any Depth

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiration from lives of yesteryear ...

and invite reflection on the question of a happy and productive old age

Lots of anecdotes; no explanations or theory

A Book of Superficial, Brief Biographies and Glibly Sketched Readings without Any Depth

Inspiration from lives of yesteryear ...