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The Late-Blooming Writer and The Cat Who Could Read Backwards #WW
Why do we love a feline gumshoe? Britt Petersen at Slate cites a literary tradition of mystical cats, “from the witchly cat Grimalkin of the 16th-century anti-Catholic satire Beware the Cat, to Poe’s...
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The Late-Blooming Author of “To Sir, With Love” Just Turned 104
An exceptional Later Bloomer turned 104 this week. No blog, website, or newspaper celebrated his eventful life or his world-famous book and its movie adaptation. Perhaps it’s because the book debuted...
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Beatrix Potter: Her Life Beyond Mushrooms and Talking Bunnies
(Today’s the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter’s birth. I’m reposting this to celebrate!) Long ago on a trip to London, a friend and I stayed near Hyde Park in Kensington. We dragged our bags up six...
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The Late-Blooming Cinderella Who Discovered a Comet
Exactly 230 years ago today, Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) became the first woman to discover a comet and receive the Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal. Yet she experienced such childhood...
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The Flowering of Mary Delany’s Ingenious Mind: At 72 She Invented Collage Art!
An ingenious mind is never too old to learn. ~Mary Granville Delany The pancratium maritimum, or sea daffodil, grows on beaches along the Mediterranean. Examine the the stamen antennae, fluid white...
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It’s Julia Child’s Birthday: Eat Well, Live Big, Bloom Late! #nevertoolate
(August 15th is the anniversary of Julia’s birth. I’m republishing this in her honor!) Recently I convinced my hubby to watch Julie & Julia. He suggested that Leto and a bottle of wine would make...
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What’s Wrong With the Term “Late Bloomer”?
“It’s not just the condescending phrase—the whispered implication that they should have bloomed earlier.” ~Daniel Coyle The term “late bloomer” can describe angsty adolescents, professional athletes...
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Edgar Rice Burroughs: From Sharpening Pencils to Running a #Writing Empire
I have often been asked how I came to write. The best answer is that I needed the money. When I started I was 35 and had failed in every enterprise I had ever attempted. ~Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar...
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Grandma Moses: “Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.”
(September 7 marks the 156th anniversary of Grandma Moses’s birth. I’m republishing this to celebrate!) Anna Mary Robertson was born before Lincoln took office. She died the year of JFK’s inauguration....
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The Strange Surprising Deeds of Daniel Defoe
On the night of November 24, the winter wind turned murderous. It toppled walls and sent the Thames raging into cellars. Within 48 hours, it mutated into the worst storm in England’s history. Coastal...
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Andrea Bocelli: Horseman, Winemaker, Lawyer, Late Bloomer
The Mojave desert: A warrior raises his sword. Fighter planes soar across the sky. A blind man gallops across the sand. These images punctuate the music video for Andrea Bocelli’s new album, Cinema,...
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Eight Must-See Movies for Creative Late Bloomers
Why do so few movies feature late-blooming adults? Malcolm Gladwell, in his famous New Yorker piece on the subject, writes Genius, in the popular conception, is inextricably tied up with...
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The Mystical Midlife Adventures of Alexandra David-Néel
One morning in 1873, at the beginning of Paris’s Belle Epoque, a gendarme sauntered through his usual rounds in the Bois de Vincennes, a natural area three times of the size of Central Park. He spied...
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How Alex Haley Went from College Dropout to Pulitzer Prizewinner
In June 1977, I vaguely recall graduating from high school. I’d wanted to leave five months earlier since I’d finished my coursework. But I was the co-captain of our championship dance team and felt...
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The Story Behind “When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple” by Jenny Joseph...
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for...
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How Madeleine L’Engle’s Most Popular Book Almost Didn’t Get Published #writing
You have to write the book that wants to be written…if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children. Recently Amazon US announced that The Hunger Games had outsold Harry...
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Late Bloomer Susan Boyle: Dreams Are Just Deferred
In April 2009, Susan Boyle sang her heart out on Britain’s Got Talent and captured the world’s. She placed second, but you’d never know. Look at some of her accomplishments: November 2009—Susan...
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Grandma Moses: “Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.”
Anna Mary Robertson was born before Lincoln took office. She died the year of JFK’s inauguration. She started painting at age 78 and sent her early works, along with her raspberry jam, to the Cambridge...
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Penelope Fitzgerald: Saved By A Sinking Houseboat
A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life, and as such it must surely be a necessary commodity. The Guardian UK has called...
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Actress Liz Smith: Started in Her 40s and Co-starred With Johnny Depp...
I’ve never considered a facelift because I earn my living by looking old. ~Liz Smith There’s a Liz Smith who calls herself “the 2000-year-old gossip columnist.” She’s often a skilled and entertaining...
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