Facts not to read when nearing one's birthday
"Flaubert was 29 when he began writing Madame Bovary," the Times story mentions. Good for Flaubert. But then the examples go on.
Unsurprisingly, in youth-obsessed America, writers have often done their best work early. Melville was 32 when "Moby-Dick" was published (after the successes of "Typee" and "Omoo"). The writers of the lost generation found their voices when they were very young: Fitzgerald (28, "The Great Gatsby"), Hemingway (27, "The Sun Also Rises"). Faulkner lagged slightly behind. He had just turned 32 when "The Sound and the Fury" was published. Then again, it was his fourth novel.
The celebrated post-World War II generation was just as precocious. Norman Mailer was only 25 when "The Naked and the Dead," his classic, and enormous, war novel came out. And James Jones's even longer work, "From Here to Eternity," was published when he was 29. The indefatigable warhorses who grew up in the 1950s were also good very young: Joyce Carol Oates (31, "Them," her fifth novel); Philip Roth (26, "Goodbye Columbus"); John Updike (28, "Rabbit, Run"); Thomas Pynchon (26, "V.").
The point of the article is to show how, despite the New Yorker's list of "20 under 40" writers (blog), many of the best modern writers wrote their most enduring works in their youth. Job well done. Son of a…
More not to read? Times: "Jeffrey Hammonds was the first player from the 1992 draft to reach the majors. He did it the next June 25, for the Orioles against the Yankees at Camden Yards." I turned 13 that day. We were there. "Hammonds knew the game was being televised back home to Scotch Plains, N.J., and when he singled in his first at-bat, he met his childhood idol, Don Mattingly, at first base." We went nuts.
Four paragraphs pass, and his career is over. "Now 39, Hammonds is a father of three living near Weston, Fla." He has made $30-plus million. His entire baseball life has passed between my birthdays. Son of a…
This blog thanks Don DeLillo for starting old and support Hammonds in his plans for a new career in digital media. If you need a comparison…
June 12th, 2010 at 10:14 AM
To be fair, Hemingway didn't hit his peak until age 55, when he won a Nobel. And a good number of people don't even believe Pynchon is a real person. (Also, "The Crying of Lot 49" sucked.) If you REALLY want to feel unaccomplished, just look at Miley Cyrus. That's what gets me down.
June 12th, 2010 at 11:15 AM
Yea, that article freaks me out. To respond to Melissa, though, Miley Cyrus actually makes me feel better. A) I wouldn't give up my childhood for anything. B) I've kind of always seen her as an entertainment puppet controlled either by her dad or Disney, and manufactured by a team of songwriters, musicians and producers. She's been in the business for awhile now and we have yet to see much originality. But that's exactly the opposite for our literary friends mentioned above. And that's what gives rise to my anxiety, a bit.
June 12th, 2010 at 12:09 PM
In place of Miley, we can use Ron Howard or Robin Sparkles. I must also raise a few Hemingway concerns, via Wikipedia. About that Nobel:
"In October 1954 Hemingway received the Nobel Prize in Literature. He modestly told the press that Carl Sandburg, Isak Dinesen and Bernard Berenson deserved the prize, but the prize money would be welcome. Mellow claims Hemingway 'had coveted the Novel Prize,' but when he won it, months after his plane accidents and the ensuing world-wide press coverage, 'there must have been a lingering suspicion in Hemingway's mind that his obituary notices had played a part in the academy's decision.' Because he was suffering pain from the African accidents, he decided against travelling to Stockholm. Instead he sent a speech to be read, defining the writer's life: 'Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.' "
In his six remaining years, at different times, he was bedridden, suffered liver damage, lost art and manuscripts in Cuban chaos, grew paranoid and confused, struggled to publish and received electroshock therapy. Then he killed himself with a shotgun. Old Man and the Sea-ish beard aside, if there's ever a young Hemingway vs. old Hemingway postage stamp vote, I'm voting young repeatedly, just like I did with Elvis.
June 12th, 2010 at 12:40 PM
I will say though that Amy Tan was 33 when The Joy Luck Club was published. We've got time! :-)
June 12th, 2010 at 2:48 PM
Monica, you can't be down on Hannah Montana! After all, she's just bein' Miley. Except when she's dancing around in a cage dressed like a bird for a music video. Then she's just bein' weird.
And Patrick, look at it this way — you've got five more years until you can be elected president.
June 13th, 2010 at 2:11 AM
Vote Cooper/Cyrus in 2016.
July 7th, 2010 at 7:42 AM
[...] the Internet destroying publishing revenues?), I'm clearing my mind today before reading the self-debated "20 Under 40" summer fiction [...]