{"product_id":"centenarian-calvin-tomkins-9780374623401","title":"Centenarian: A Diary","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA moving (and wickedly funny) diary of the legendary \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e staff writer Calvin Tomkins's one hundredth year. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCalvin Tomkins and \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e--two of the most storied names in American writing--were both born in the same year, 1925. As the magazine toasted its centenary, Tomkins began keeping a diary of his one hundredth year of life and sixty-fifth year as a staff writer, one whose nearly four hundred pieces amount to one of the fullest accounts of postwar art ever published. The result is \u003ci\u003eCentenarian\u003c\/i\u003e, a moving, probing, and wickedly entertaining series of reflections on daily life after nearly ten decades on earth. As Tomkins writes, \"The first hundred years are the hardest.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTomkins confronts with candor the indignities of old age--macular degeneration and short-term memory loss. But he continues to find humor in everyday absurdities, like assistive devices that come with fine-print instructions. He also looks back on his relationships with some of the twentieth century's greatest artists--from watching Georgia O'Keeffe's oven explode while she roasted a chicken to surreptitiously slipping a coin into a Robert Rauschenberg collage, inserting a piece of himself into the art whose rise he would chronicle in real time. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs Tomkins observes, \"I sometimes think my main complaint about old age is the way it interferes with looking at art and listening to music.\" This ever-inquisitive sensibility infuses the pages of \u003ci\u003eCentenarian\u003c\/i\u003e, offering a singular model for living well and embracing all the world has to offer in one's hundredth year and beyond. Above all, \u003ci\u003eCentenarian \u003c\/i\u003eis a love story--a tribute to Tomkins's wife of nearly forty years, Dodie Kazanjian, who helped him complete his diary as his eyesight began to fail.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Calvin Tomkins\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0374623406\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780374623401\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Farrar, Straus and Giroux\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/23\/2027\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 128\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.50h x 5.00w x 1.00d","brand":"Calvin Tomkins","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48997683429631,"sku":"9780374623401","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/centenarian-calvin-tomkins-9780374623401","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}