# Literary classics written in very advanced age (80+) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 28, 2015, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235 "2015-08-28T23:46:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gracefulfatsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@gracefulfatsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracefulfatsheba)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/1 "2015-08-28T23:46:26Z")
I know of a few literary classics written by teenagers (like Rimbaud’s “a Season in Hell”), but are there any examples of notable literary classics written primarily when the author was in their 80s or older? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/2 "2015-08-29T00:17:54Z")
Henry Roth was born in 1906. He published his first novel _Call It Sleep_ in 1934. He published his second novel _Mercy of a Rude Stream_ (in four parts) in 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1998. He died in 1995. A final part of _Mercy of a Rude Stream_ was published in 2010. Classic - who knows? They were well reviewed. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/3 "2015-08-29T00:23:16Z")
P.G. Wodehouse. He died in 1975 at the age of 93 with his beloved typewriter at his side in the hospital room, bearing the last page of the unfinished manuscript of _Sunset at Blandings_. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/4 "2015-08-29T05:39:05Z")
He was still writing, but I wouldn’t call his later works classics. I thought his later books showed a marked decline. Obviously a subjective assessment on my part. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/5 "2015-08-29T06:58:42Z")
Moved to Cafe Society. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/6 "2015-08-29T08:42:00Z")
Define a literary classic. If it’s defined by a select committee deciding it’s a classic, then Doris Lessing won a Nobel prize in literature at the age of 89. If it’s defined by readership, Barabara Cartland was still selling in the millions into her 90s. If it’s defined some other way, you need to tell us what that is. ---
**Author:** ![gracefulfatsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@gracefulfatsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracefulfatsheba)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/7 "2015-08-29T13:41:27Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Define a literary classic. > > If it’s defined by a select committee deciding it’s a classic, then Doris Lessing won a Nobel prize in literature at the age of 89. > > If it’s defined by readership, Barabara Cartland was still selling in the millions into her 90s. > > If it’s defined some other way, you need to tell us what that is. Multiple published critics called it a literary classic. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/8 "2015-08-29T13:45:00Z")
Yeah, “classic” is the tricky part. P.G. Wodehouse has been mentioned, and I know Rex Stout was still writing Nero Wolfe mysteries in his eighties, but Wodehouse’s last few books weren’t particularly memorable, and I don’t consider Stout’s last few books to be “classics” of the mystery genre- just decent, workmanlike products. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/9 "2015-08-29T14:08:08Z")
Helen Hooven Santmyer was born in 1895. She published her first novel _Herbs and Apples_ in 1925 and her second novel _The Fierce Dispute_ in 1929. She published her third novel _“. . . And Ladies of the Club”_ in 1982. She died in 1986. Again, classic? Well, who knows, but it was well reviewed. There is an unpublished novel _The Hall with Eight Doors_. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/10 "2015-08-29T21:29:35Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > [P. G. Wodehouse] was still writing, but I wouldn’t call his later works classics. I thought his later books showed a marked decline. Obviously a subjective assessment on my part. I agree, although those of us attuned to his style of writing consider even Wodehouse in decline to be miles above any other comparable writing. He arguably hit his peak during the 30s and 40s, although he wrote great stuff both before and after. Most of the Mulliner series and Ukridge stories were written in the late 20s, and several great Blandings books came from the 50s. His latest works did start to become formulaic. Still, he managed to turn out Jeeves stories that were quite up to par right to the end – _Much Obliged, Jeeves_ in 1971 when he would have been 89, and _Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen_ in 1974 at the age of 92. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/11 "2015-08-29T21:35:59Z")
apocryphal classical anecdote Sophocles wrote Oedipus at Colonus when he was very old. In his 90s His son took him to court to have him declared incompetent so he could get his inheritance. Sophocles just read some lines of his new play he was writing to prove he was still with it. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/12 "2015-08-29T21:42:21Z")
Norman Maclean published his first book, the Pulitzer nominated _A River Runs Through It_ in 1976 when he was 74. He spent his last years before dying at 87 on his second book _Young Men and Fire_ which was published after his death. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/13 "2015-08-29T22:09:56Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Define a literary classic. > > If it’s defined by a select committee deciding it’s a classic, then Doris Lessing won a Nobel prize in literature at the age of 89. That was for a lifetime body of work, not one specific book. The last book Lessing wrote that won an award in its own right seems to have been The Good Terrorist, when she was 65. In the context of this thread, that’s probably an honorable mention. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/14 "2015-08-30T01:34:27Z")
Jack Williamson won the Hugo and Nebula awards for his novella, “The Ultimate Earth” in 2001/2002. He was 92 when it was published. He also won a John Campbell Memorial Award that year for _Terraforming Earth._ Though he had won some lifetime achievement awards and a nonfiction Hugo previous to this, it was the first time he had won an award for a single work in competition with others. No one who he competed with had been born before Williamson’s first published work, and most likely some of their fathers hadn’t been either. To put that in perspective, Williamson was winning awards in the 21st century even though his birthplace wasn’t even a state when he was born. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/15 "2015-08-30T02:43:19Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Norman Maclean published his first book, the Pulitzer nominated _A River Runs Through It_ in 1976 when he was 74. He spent his last years before dying at 87 on his second book _Young Men and Fire_ which was published after his death. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992. I was going to mention _Young Men and Fire_. It’s an extraordinarily beautifully written book, and one of my favorites. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/16 "2015-08-30T03:22:32Z")
This isn’t quite what you’re asking about, but I think the most interesting example of an artist in any field continuing to work well into old age is the Portuguese film director Manoel de Oliveira. He was born on December 11, 1908. He appeared as an extra in a film of the silent era and worked with some other people in trying to make a film in the silent era which didn’t get finished. He didn’t really get started as a director of feature films until 1972, and it was only in 1983 that he began to consistently average directing a feature film a year. After he turned 100, he directed three feature films and some short films too. He died on April 2, 2015 at the age of 106. He was working on plans for another film at the time of his death. I don’t think he’s considered a great director, but he was a consistently interesting one: > **[Manoel de Oliveira - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0210701/)** > > Manoel de Oliveira. Director: Os Canibais. Manoel de Oliveira was born on 11 December 1908 in Oporto, Portugal. He was a director and writer, known for Os Canibais (1988), I'm Going Home (2001) and Christopher Columbus, the Enigma (2007). He was... > **[Manoel de Oliveira](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manoel_de_Oliveira)** > > Manoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira GCSE GCIH (Portuguese: \[mɐnuˈɛl doliˈvɐjɾɐ\]; 11 December 1908 – 2 April 2015) was a Portuguese film director and screenwriter born in Cedofeita, Porto. He first began making films in 1927, when he and some friends attempted to make a film about World War I. In 1931 he completed his first film Douro, Faina Fluvial, a documentary about his home city Porto made in the city-symphony genre. He made his feature film debut in 1942 with Aniki-Bóbó and continued to make ... ---
**Author:** ![gracefulfatsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@gracefulfatsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracefulfatsheba)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/17 "2015-08-30T14:35:22Z")
Interesting examples, thanks everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/18 "2015-08-30T15:02:31Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > _Much Obliged, Jeeves_ in 1971 when he would have been 89, and _Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen_ in 1974 at the age of 92. personally, these are two of my least favourite Wodehouse books and I thought they really showed his decline, particularly _Aunts_. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/19 "2015-08-30T15:38:31Z")
RealityChuck writes: \> To put that in perspective, Williamson was winning awards in the 21st century even though his birthplace wasn’t even a state when he was born. Of course, you could also say that of Ellen Kushner, since D.C. still isn’t a state. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235/20 "2015-08-30T15:47:51Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Of course, you could also say that of Ellen Kushner, since D.C. still isn’t a state. You could also say it about anyone who wasn’t born in the USA. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-classics-written-in-very-advanced-age-80/729235.md?page=2)