Rich Karlgaard believes our society suffers from an obsession with young prodigies, stars who peak at a young age. In “Late Bloomers,” he makes the case for allowing people the opportunity to blossom when they are ready. He backs this up with anecdotes of folks who found success long after crossing the threshold into adulthood and an examination of societal factors he believes contribute to the emphasis on early achievement.
If you’re still wayfinding later in life than you expected, take heart from the examples of these late bloomers:
In her fifties, Emma “Grandma” Gatewood, an Ohio mother
of 11, mustered the will to leave an abusive marriage. Walks in the wilderness brought her solace, and in 1995, at the age of 67, she became the first woman to thru-hike the entire Appalachian Trail, all 2,168 miles of it. She spent the rest of her life as an avid hiker, working to create and improve trails throughout the country. Ben Montgomery tells her story in “Grandma Gatewood’s Walk.”
R&B singer Sharon Jones recorded her first single at age 40, releasing her first full album with her band, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, at age 46. She went on to record several more albums, garner acclaim with live concerts, work on movie soundtracks and receive a Grammy nomination before her death from pancreatic cancer in 2016, at age 60. Her music is available from DBRL on CDs and through the Freegal app.
It would be easy to assume that acclaimed chef Julia Child
grew up helping to prepare the family dinner every night. In truth, she knew little about cooking until she was in her late thirties and fell in love with French food while living in Paris. She enrolled in cooking school and went on to collaborate with Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck on “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” first published in 1969, the year Child turned 49. Her TV show, “The French Chef,” debuted when she was 50.
Harry Bernstein earned a living with words, working as an editor and freelance writer for various magazines. But he didn’t start work on his first book until age 93. “The Invisible Wall, a Love Story That Broke Barriers” is a memoir about growing up Jewish in an English milltown. It went to press in 2007, when Bernstein was 96 years old. Before his death, he published two more books, “The Dream” and “The Golden Willow.”
As Satchel Paige famously mused, “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”
