Roctogenarians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs

From beloved CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Mo Rocca, author of the New York Times bestseller Mobituaries, comes an inspiring collection of stories that celebrates the triumphs of people who made their biggest marks late in life.

Eighty has been the new sixty for about twenty years now. In fact, there have always been late-in-life achievers, those who declined to go into decline just because they were eligible for social security. Journalist, humorist, and history buff Mo Rocca and coauthor Jonathan Greenberg introduce us to the people past and present who peaked when they could have been puttering--breaking out as writers, selling out concert halls, attempting to set land-speed records--and in the case of one ninety-year-old tortoise, becoming a first-time father. (Take that, Al Pacino!)

In the vein of Mobituaries, Roctogenarians is a collection of entertaining and unexpected profiles of these unretired titans--some long gone (a cancer-stricken Henri Matisse, who began work on his celebrated cut-outs when he could no longer paint), some very much still living (the original EGOT, Rita Moreno). The amazing cast of characters also includes Mary Church Terrell, who at eighty-six helped lead sit-ins at segregated Washington, DC, lunch counters in the 1950s, and John Goodenough, who was more than good enough to score a Nobel Prize at ninety-seven for inventing the lithium-ion battery. Then there's Peter Mark Roget, who began working on his thesaurus in his twenties but completed it at ninety years old (because sometimes finding the right word takes time.)

With passion and wonder Rocca and Greenberg recount the stories of yesterday and today's strongest finishers. Because with all due respect to the Golden Girls, some people will never be content sitting out on the lanai. (PS Actress Estelle Getty was sixty-two when she got her big break. And yes, she's in the book.)

Author: Mo Rocca, Jonathan Greenberg
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 06/11/2024
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.28lbs
Size: 9.25h x 7.38w x 0.99d
ISBN: 9781668052501