Lastingness : The Art of Old Age

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. However, younger may be better but 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 honour them, and when to say 'step aside'? In his new book, Nicholas Delbanco, one of America's most formidable scholars, tackles the enigma of 'lastingness,' searching for the answers to the question of why some artists' work diminishes with age and that of others reaches its peak. Both an intellectual inquiry ino the essence of aging and creativity and a personal journey of discovery, LASTINGNESS is a brilliant exploration of what determines what one needs to do to keep the habits of creation and achievement alive.

Nicholas Delbanco has published 24 books of fiction and non-fiction. He has edited the work of, among others, John Gardner and Bernard Malamud. 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.