Young at Heart: 61 Extraordinary Americans Tell How to Defy Age with Zest, Work & Healthy Lifestyles.

"Young at Heart: Aging Gracefully With Attitude" is a totally inspiring and illuminating book. What I found personally charming about the book is that it includes the great Russian Portrait Painter, MICHAEL WERBOFF, who passed away in 1998 at the ripe old (but "forever young") age of 99. It gives me great pleasure that the author was wise enough to choose to select Michael Werboff as worthy of inclusion in this wonderful book. The selection in the book regarding Werboff very beautifully summarized and encapsulated my own impressions of Werboff when I met him myself, several years ago, which I include below for anyone wishing to learn more about this unusual man who indeed, even in his eighties, when I was fortunate enough to meet him, was still so young at heart and had indeed aged so gracefully but without ever having lost his impressive degree of "attitude". This book truly captures the feelings and qualities of mind that all the people included shared with Michael Werboff. A great and MUST OWN book. Memories of a Meeting With Russian Painter Michael Werboff ______________________________________________ I had the great pleasure and honor, in the 1980's, of spending an afternoon with Michael Werboff in his NYC studio on the upper West side on 110th street in Manhattan. I was teaching at that time at a school near Sutton Place and quite by accident his grandson, was assigned to one of my drawing classes. He introduced himself and recommended I call Michael Werboff and arrange to meet him, which I did the same day. To spend an afternoon with Werboff remains to this day one of the great memories from that period in my life. His studio was filled everywhere with drawings and paintings produced during his long career. Although unfortunately not well known today by the general public or inhabitants of the current (Modern Art) world, Werboff was quite well known and internationally respected during his own most active years pre the 1960's. Sitting with him in his studio, crowded with the artistic creations of a lifetime, was like taking a trip back through time. Werboff exuded a tremendous life force and energy and though probably more than eighty years old at the time of my interview he still retained a full head of hair, much of it still dark. He had been an opera singer in his earlier years and still possessed a deep and resounding voice that made him a most commanding personage, even so late in life. He had on one of his easels, a photograph of himself painting the King of Spain (I believe it was Alfonso II) in his Palace in Madrid about 1930. Werboff was dressed in a dark suit and with his jet black hair he cut a most impressive figure. Werboff possessed the type of larger than life presence and charisma that allowed him to move in any circles, including the highest echelons of "high society" and Royalty, during the waning years of the European aristocracy before World War II. To listen to Werboff recount his painting of K

A marvelous book, for those already retired or approaching retirement. 61 extraordinary Americans tell how to age and stay healthy. And the secret is simple -- stay active. Yale Richmond, Washington DC

Anne Crosman's "Young at Heart" is a thoughtful and loving exploration of the territory of old age, a region many of us would rather not hear about until we get there. Her traveling companions are a well-chosen troupe of plain and fancy folk who have all reached the far end of the normal lifespan. Ms. Crosman's journalistic skills are evident as she draws out her subjects and subject couples with general questions on their beliefs, their views on work, health, love and family. There is general agreement on the importance of diet and exercise, continuing the parallel journeys of learning and work unto the end, and the need to nourish and cherish connections with those we love. Asking for advice from her subjects to the younger generation, Ms. Crosman teases out responses both thoughtful and amusing. Steve Allen counsels keeping in close touch with your inner child, the sillier the better. Marjorie van Ouwerkerk Miley wrote, while completing her college education at age 81, "Ban all mirrors!" Piano great Billy Taylor extolled the joys of passing along the gift through mentoring: "I can't give it back to Jo Jones or Art Tatum or Teddy Wilson or any of those guys. They're gone. So the best thing I can do is to do whatever I can for someone else who is YOUNGER." Ms. Crosman's book is subtitled "Aging Gracefully with Attitude." None of her subjects shies away from the less attractive aspects of the aging mind and body, but grace becomes manifest in the energy these lively survivors devote to pushing these inconveniences into the background as they pursue their zestful explorations of this new country. Rather than viewing the journey through time as a descent into the gathering dark, Ms. Crosman's explorers report unexpected blessings: "The art of loving grows deeper, the act of learning...more precious, and the rewards of work multiply." Attainment of grace may be the tricky part, but Ms. Crosman's 57 insightful studies offer many ways to get there.

This has been one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read! I felt very enlightened by the words of wisdom from the different men and women, Anne Crosman, the author, interviewed. I loved her writing style! She was able to capture the different personalities and I felt like I actually met with these people personally. It's the kind of book I like to go back to when I need a little motivation. Young At Heart is an ageless book and a book for all ages. It really proves that everyone of us has a purpose in life and if we don't know which one, this book gives you the inspiration so we can always be Young At Heart! Young at Heart is truly uplifting, it is a must read and a must share.

By a "new age," I don't mean the Age of Aquarius. I mean... sixty-two. Sixty-two, which I reach next year, will be a new age for me. Statistics say with reasonable luck I should reach that new age, then seventy, and eighty, and with very good luck ninety, and... who knows? But what will I do? Assuming that I WILL live, HOW will I live? "Young at Heart: Aging Gracefully with Attitude" consists of fifty-seven or so interviews with good role models. Crosman says she posed them the same question: "What was their secret of living long and well?" There are no pat answers. Crosman says up front that their secret was "not to dwell on aging," but that's no answer. It just raises the next question, HOW do you do that? The answers--specific, individual, and crackling with energy--come out in the interviews. The style is journalistic. This, Crosman says, is what old people who are living well do, and how they do it. Most of the interviewees have unsentimental, no-nonsense attitudes. They don't say aging is great. Ruth Christie Stebbins says "This business of hip-hooraying being 100 years old--I say anybody who goes when their 80 years old is the lucky one!" The book does not consist of abstract advice. It is fact on fact, seemingly prosaic detail on detail. It doesn't feel inspirational in the usual sense; the language is plain and colloquial. And yet something comes through. If I--well, OK, I can't escape the song lyrics--If I should survive to a hundred and five--nobody is going to be able to tell me what _I_ need to do for myself. But here is what other people are doing. Here are people who have explored that territory and Anne Snowden Crosman has brought their reports back. I think this book would be a good gift for anyone approaching retirement age. Oh, the interviews are with Steve Allen, Ray Geiger, Lina Berle, Malcolm Boyd, Sammy Cahn, Ressa Clute, Elizabeth and Edmund Campbell, Servando Trujillo, Nien Cheng, Paul Spangler, Georgie Clark, Monk Farnham, Marjory Stonman Douglas, Aveline and Michio Kushi, Edmund deTreville Ellis, Martha Griffiths, Dale Evans and Roy Rogers, Jeanne Beattie Butts, J. William Fulbright, Maggie Kuhn, Patric Hayes, Lillie and Ralph Douglass, Skitch henderson, Helen Kearnes Richards, Theodore Hesburgh, Ruth Warrick, Hildegarde, John Hench, Evelyn Bryan Johnson, Richard Erdoes, George jones, Lucille Lortel, Ethel Keohane, Michael Werboff, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, J. R. Simplot, Art Linkletter, Mary Sherwood, Sarah Newcomb McClendon, Russell Meyers, Ruth Schick Montgomery, Margaret Chase Smith, Gordon Parks, Ruth Christie Stebbins, Les Paul, John Lautner, Linus Pauling, Jewel Plummer Cobb, Ruth Stafford Peale, Maurice Abravanel, Hank Spalding, Marjorie van Ouwerkerk Miley, Benjamin Spock, Dorthy Davis Bohannon, Billy Taylor, Molly Yard, and Helen Ver Standig.