Joshua Prager: Wisdom from great writers on every year of life
Joshua Prager’s journalism unravels historical secrets -- and his own. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
is going to be a very good year,
particular in store for me,
and sentiment to be a man,
wasn't writing about me.
the subject of his book,
along the same great sequence:
and confinements of childhood;
and frustrations of adolescence;
and millstones of adulthood;
and resignations of old age.
"It will happen to me as to them."
where they become narratives
if it passes into anything."
a thought leapt to mind:
there were, somewhere,
assemble them into a narrative.
wrote William Trevor.
and later an injury to me
could not be assumed.
only postponed the inevitable,
what circumstance did not.
year by vulnerable year
what was fleeting,
a glimpse into the future,
I was quickly obsessed,
for ages and ages.
through our first hundred years.
of sudden revelations,"
that such insights were relative.
and so age more slowly.
the phrase "the yellow leaf"
used it to describe himself at 36.
can swing wildly and unpredictably
the same age differently.
as the reflection in the mirror,
and less sure of who one is;"
of preparation into active life;"
the doors to rooms
visualizations you see here,
and an apotheosis," wrote Nabokov --
what we've experienced.
the list with my grandfather,
we are sure we will not die,
named Edwin Shneidman was right
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Joshua Prager - JournalistJoshua Prager’s journalism unravels historical secrets -- and his own.
Why you should listen
Joshua Prager writes for publications including Vanity Fair, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, where he was a senior writer for eight years. George Will has described his work as "exemplary journalistic sleuthing."
His new book, 100 Years, is a list of literary quotations on every age from birth to one hundred. Designed by Milton Glaser, the legendary graphic designer who created the I ♥ NY logo, the book moves year by year through the words of our most beloved authors, revealing the great sequence of life.
His first book, The Echoing Green, was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. The New York Times Book Review called it “a revelation and a page turner, a group character study unequaled in baseball writing since Roger Kahn’s Boys of Summer some three decades ago.”
His second book, Half-Life, describes his recovery from a bus crash that broke his neck. Dr. Jerome Groopman, staff writer at the New Yorker magazine, called it “an extraordinary memoir, told with nuance and brimming with wisdom.
Joshua was a Nieman fellow at Harvard in 2011 and a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at Hebrew University in 2012. He was born in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, grew up in New Jersey, and lives in New York. He is writing a book about Roe v. Wade.
Joshua Prager | Speaker | TED.com