The View from Eighty - Large Print Author:Malcolm Cowley "One's 80th birthday is a time for thinking about the future, not the past," writes Malolm Cowley in this graceful, wide-ranging essay. Like a vigilant sea captain, he scans the horizon of the elderly for storms, shoals, and signs of fair sailing. His book will touch readers of any age. — Expanded from a 1978 Life magazine article, ... more »this 74-page volume offers a refreshing and candid discussion of what we call old age by a distinguished man of letters. Following hard on the heels of Cowley's 11th book, a memoir of the depression era entitled "The Dream of the Golden Mountains," published last spring, it offers ample proof that the 70s, 80s, and beyond needn't be years of drift and inactivity.
"The View from 80" doesn't urge every octogenarian to be as physically active as the 86-year-old Key West man who wrote to Cowley describing his morning regimen (20 situps, followed by a bicycle sprint to the beach for calisthenics, and a brisk swim).It does urge the elderly to live with purpose, strength, and vigor.« less