Willard Spiegelman is the Hughes Professor of English at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. From 1984 until 2016, he was also the editor in chief of Southwest Review. He has written many books and essays about English and American poetry. For more than a quarter century he has been a regular contributor to the Leisure & Arts pages of The Wall Street Journal.
Willard Spiegelman's Senior Moments is a work of deep seriousness
and profundity delivered with lightness, moral poise, and a warm,
witty, conversational humility. It is dulce et utile both--a balm
to the reader thinking (or trying to think) about ageing and
mortality; and a practical guide to some of the surprising,
hardy-perennial pleasures that can unexpectedly survive and deepen,
even as one's hours, days, months, years, dwindle. Spiegelman is
cherishable in the same friendly, yet paradoxical, way Montaigne
is--robustly sad, joyfully unillusioned, and yet alive to life in a
manner that both consoles and delights. --Terry Castle, author of
The Professor: A Sentimental EducationWith 'Senior Moments',
Willard Spiegelman gives us one of the most poignant and amusing
accounts of what it's really like to go through that rite of
passage that is the twelfth grade. From choosing a college, to
finals, to the prom, he . . . wait. What? It's not that? Oh. Um,
can I get back to you? --Chip Kidd"Aging is our universal
condition: the only question is whether we approach our seniority
kicking and screaming or proceed with some degree of style and, let
us hope, capacity for happiness. Spiegelman's wise, witty, spirited
essays show how we might work our way over to the
style-and-happiness route, and are as good a guide for living
well--at any age--as any other that I know." --Ben Fountain, author
of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk"They say we are living in a
golden age of the personal essay, and it's true . . . Walk with
Willard through New York, Tokyo, Dallas, his personal library,
museums--walk with Willard through life." --Mark Oppenheimer,
author of Knocking on Heaven's Door"Spiegelman makes a reliable
ambassador for the changes that advancing years bring, animated by
gratitude and warmly ready for further inquiry: he might be giving,
and making more achievable, Pope's famous advice: 'Keep good humor
still, whate'er we lose.'" --Stephen Burt, author of The Art of the
Sonnet"Willard Spiegelman is a wise old soul." --Raymond Sokolov,
author of Why We Eat What We Eat"A book so vivid and personable
that one has the impression of sitting across a dinner table from
its author. He talks to us in a tone at once convivial and elegiac
as he addresses some of life's biggest questions: What makes us
happy? How can we make the best use of our brief lifetimes? To
tackle these, Spiegelman brings to bear his vast erudition, humane
intelligence, wit, and personal candor. The result is a beautiful
and wise book about making daily life a meaningful pleasure."
--Rhonda Garelick, author of Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and the
Pulse of History"Senior Moments takes us on a learned, witty
meander from "Talk" to "Quiet," passing through Dallas, Japan, New
York City, books, and art along the way. He treads so lightly, it
takes a while to notice that this is a guidebook to aging and
preparation-with grace and sweetness-for the final silence."
--Rosanna Warren, author of Ghost in a Red Hat: Poems
Willard Spiegelman writes essays like Ferran Adria approached
"molecular" gastronomy, with conscious, understated artistry.
--Bill Thompson, The Charleston Post and Courier"He's an agreeable,
wise and witty companion -- edifying, fun and fearless as he
proffers lessons in happiness and aging learned during his long,
distinguished career." --The Dallas Morning News "Mr. Spiegelman
adopts the discursive, finely crafted voice of a literature
professor, revealing a penchant for aphorism and allusion." --Wall
Street Journal "[Willard Spiegelman is] a master of form . . .
connecting the personal to the universal." [Senior Moments is ]a
sophisticated and fun read . . . a comfort, and a joy, to learn
that someone with a sharp wit and even sharper mind has considered
the questions, blazed a trail, and created a thoughtful record of
the journey." --Ocala Star Banner "Lucid and propulsive, opening
portals to heightened enjoyment of the time we have." --Kirkus
Reviews"Spiegelman writes with a casual, engaging style and
frequently punctuates his paragraphs with references to literature
that crystallize his ideas. Readers will find this volume rich with
relatable insights." --Publishers Weekly"Readers of a similar age
will savor his delight in language and life as he ponders the past
and peers into the future." --Booklist"I can think of no one better
to help me adjust to getting older . . . This is a delightful book
of essays." --Glen Roven, The Huffington Post"[Spiegelman] takes
himself lightly and brings fresh energy to an appreciation of many
subjects. . . with conversational whimsy and genuine gratitude for
the people, places, ideas, and memories they inspire. . . The
author draws on an equal blend of critical rigor and love for his
themes. --Library JournalWell-written essays by an elder who is
very skilled at weaving together the experiences of his life . . .
Creative and wise. --Spirituality and PracticeReading these
reflections is like sitting in a restaurant and listening while
your quietly garrulous friend leans forward over his drink and, on
almost any subject you could name, reminisces, jokes, speculates,
analyzes and talks, talks, talks . . . casually brilliant. --Donald
Mace Williams, San Antonio Express-News[Senior Moments] engages
gently and also ponders the pleasures of nostalgia, art and
solitude. You'll want to enjoy Spiegelman's Senior Moments slowly.
--Charmaine Chan, South China PostSenior Moments is a memoir that
surprises and enchants.--Colin Harrington, Berkshire EagleAn
eloquent fusion of memoir and essay, "Senior Moments" is at its
heart a toast to life, art and the pursuit and appreciation of
Quality. And the pages are so passionate, well-reasoned and
affectionate that one could easily see the 71-year-old Spiegelman
walking through a fine museum with smiling old Death Himself,
chatting together in celebration of the art of conversation and
life's possibilities. --Rick Koster, The New London Day
Senior Moments is quick with good sense, playfulness, and probing
intelligence. His prose is so elegant that if I'd not aged beyond
fervors and lusts of all vivifying kinds, I would be envious . . .
Senior Moments is a door, making the reader feel alive, urging him
to appreciate his life, be that life composed of memories or of
streets as yet untraveled. --Sam Pickering, Kenyon ReviewSenior
Moments is just wonderful... Over the past five years I've become
addicted, above all, to the machinery of sentences, and your book
is full of so many amazing syntactical machines. They give me hope
that it's still possible to write well: that the language, for all
it has suffered, is undiminished. --Patrick Phillips, author of
Blood at the RootWillard Spiegelman's improbably titled Senior
Moments is a delicious read. Viva! --C.M. MayoSpiegelman has a keen
ear . . . [He has] the ability to conjure tableaus that reside
somewhere between vaudeville and a Saul Bellow novel. --Ernest
Hilbert, The Hopkins Review[Senior Moments is] a pleasant,
wide-ranging journey taken with a friend who knows how to provoke
important thoughts and concerns, in the midst of wry smiles and
laughter. --Si Dunn, Lone Star Literary Life
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