This Old Man ─ All in Pieces

From the acclaimed New Yorker writer and editor, a compendium of writings that celebrate the view from the tenth decade of his richly lived life

In February 2014, The New Yorker published an essay by Roger Angell called “This Old Man,” a meditation on life at age ninety-three. With great humor and not an ounce of self-pity or sentimentality, Angell wrote about health, mind, and memory; reckoning with the past and a long list of friends and family who have died; daily joys and struggles; and, above all, love. Cheerful and beautiful and moving, the piece became an instant classic, won a National Magazine Award, and has been shared and discussed by legions of readers young and old.
“This Old Man” is the centerpiece of Angell’s new book, which gathers essays, letters, photos, comic verse, and drawings that in aggregate present a kaleidoscopic portrayal of a deeply engaged and vibrant life. Angell’s fluid prose and native curiosity make him an amiable and compelling companion on the page. Whether the subject is coping with the loss of his wife, Carol, editing John Updike, the seventh game of the 2014 World Series, his appreciation of fox terriers, or the Fourth of July ceremonies in his summer home in rural Maine, what links the pieces (most of recent vintage) is the deep sense of gratitude that suffuses them. Gratitude for the people he has known, the experiences he’s had, the writers and friends and baseball players he admires. It’s a portrait of a full and fascinating life, but a portrait always directed generously outward.
Angell is New Yorker royalty. Son of Katharine S. White, the first fiction editor ofThe New Yorker, and stepson of E. B. White, Angell wrote his first piece for the magazine in 1944 and was for many years chief fiction editor himself. His affectionate take on the magazine and the personalities who’ve worked there makes for a lively slice of twentieth (and twenty-first) century cultural history. He is even better known as a baseball writer—he’s in the Hall of Fame with Babe Ruth and Willie Mays!—and the baseball writing in the book is pure heaven for fans of the national pastime.
Engaging, sharp, and wonderfully written, This Old Man is a pure pleasure to read.

Roger Angell is a senior fiction editor and a longtime contributor with The New Yorker. His writings for the magazine include reporting, commentary, fiction, humor, film and book reviews, and, for many years, the magazine’s Christmas verse, “Greetings, Friends!” His ten books include such baseball writings as The Summer Game, Five Seasons, andGame Time, and, most recently, a memoir, Let Me Finish. His awards include a George Polk Award for Commentary; the Michael Braude Award for Light Verse, presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters; a PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing; and the J. G. Taylor Spink Award, the highest honor given to writers by the Baseball Hall of Fame. HisNew Yorker piece “This Old Man” won the 2015 prize for Essays and Criticism awarded by the American Society of Magazine Editors. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Mr. Angell lives in New York and Maine.