Roctogenarians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs

(Hardback)

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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 putteringbreaking out as writers, selling out concert halls, attempting to set land-speed recordsand 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 titanssome 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 theres 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 todays 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, shes in the book.)

Author Bio

Mo Roccais a correspondent forCBSSunday Morning, host of the hitMobituariespodcast, and host ofThe Henry Fords Innovation Nation.Hes also a frequent panelist on NPRs hit weeklyquiz showWaitWaitDont Tell Me!andhost and creator of Cooking ChannelsMy Grandmothers Ravioli. Rocca iscoauthor of the New York Times bestsellingMobituaries: Great Lives WorthReliving and author ofAll the Presidents Pets.

Jonathan Greenberg is professor of English at Montclair State University and the author of two books of literary criticism, along with many articles and essays. With Mo Rocca, he is coauthor ofMobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving. He is also an Emmy Awardwinning screenwriter who has written for childrens shows includingRugrats,Hey Arnold!, andArthur.