{"id":2674,"date":"2025-06-21T15:19:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T15:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/2674\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T15:19:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T15:19:12","slug":"susan-gubar-on-creative-women-as-they-aged-they-made-much-of-less","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/2674\/","title":{"rendered":"Susan Gubar on creative women as they aged: \u2018They made much of less\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this week\u2019s newsletter, we have a chat with Susan Gubar, whose new book, \u201cGrand Finales: The Creative Longevity of Women Artists,\u201d<\/b><\/a> profiles seven creators who found a second wind in their advancing years. We also look at recent releases reviewed in The Times. And a local bookseller tells us what\u2019s selling right now. <\/p>\n

Seventeen years ago, Susan Gubar was handed a death sentence. A distinguished professor emerita of English and women\u2019s studies at Indiana University and the co-author (with Sandra M. Gilbert) of 1979\u2019s \u201cThe Madwoman in the Attic,\u201d<\/b><\/a> a groundbreaking work of feminist literary theory, Gubar in 2008 was staring down a terminal cancer diagnosis. A clinical trial involving an experimental drug prolonged her life and gave her the impetus to tackle a new project about seven artists \u2014 George Eliot, Colette, Georgia O\u2019Keeffe, Isak Dinesen, Marianne Moore, Louise Bourgeois, Mary Lou Williams, Gwendolyn Brooks and Katherine Dunham \u2014 who entered a new phase of creative ferment and productivity as they grew older. <\/p>\n

I talked to Gubar about her new book, the myth of old age and the persistent stereotypes attached to female artists who may be perceived as having outlived their usefulness as creators.<\/p>\n

\n

Any sort of creative activity involves expression, which is a great antidote to depression.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2014 Susan Gubar on why she writes<\/p>\n

(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)<\/p>\n

\u270d\ufe0f Author Chat \""Grand <\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cGrand Finales: The Creative Longevity of Women Artists\u201d by Susan Gubar<\/p>\n

(W. W. Norton)<\/p>\n

Can you talk about how the book came about? <\/b><\/p>\n

In 2008, I was told that I had 3-5 years to live with late-stage ovarian cancer. The standard treatment was ineffectual. But then in 2012, my oncologist encouraged me to enroll in a clinical trial that was experimenting with a new drug. After nine years in the trial, she then urged me to take \u201ca drug holiday\u201d since long-term use of the medication could cause leukemia. I am still on that holiday. An unanticipated old age made me appreciate the wonderful gifts longevity can bestow.<\/p>\n

In researching your subjects, what do they all share in common? <\/b><\/p>\n

All of my subjects are artists who experienced the losses of aging. They needed canes and wheelchairs and helpers while they suffered the pains of various diseases and regimens. One coped with blindness, another with deafness and still others with the loss of intimates. Yet in the face of such deficits, they used their art to exhibit their audacity, mojo, chutzpah, bravado. They\u2019re exemplars of Geezer Machismo.<\/p>\n

All of your subjects are women, who have a much tougher time in terms of earning respect and attention as they age. Can you speak to the obstacles they had to overcome as they reinvented themselves as artists in their advanced years? <\/b><\/p>\n

The stereotypical old lady is invisible or risible, but we know that many elderly women thrive. My old ladies did not approach their life stories as prime-and-decline narratives. Instead they reinvented themselves. In part, they managed to do this by changing their objectives as artists. They moved from the stage to the page or from elite to popular forms. Some of them underwent religious or political conversions that energized their last years. They fully understood the losses of old age, but they did not settle for less. Instead, they made much of less.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s interesting about these artists is that \u2014 contrary, I must admit, to what I thought would have been the case \u2014 these women were supported by men who became their benefactors, and helped them to negotiate their careers. <\/b><\/p>\n

Quite a few of the women that I write about were helped by much younger men in their lives, who became facilitators. This is true for George Eliot, Colette, Georgia O\u2019Keeffe, Louise Bourgeoise, Mary Lou Williams and others. Williams, the great jazz pianist, was helped by a Jesuit named Father O\u2019Brien, who helped her get control of her copyrights. Georgia O\u2019Keeffe, in contrast, has been championed by photographer Alfred Stieglitz, but she had to leave him in her midlife to establish her autonomy late in life. He was very controlling, even though he definitely established her reputation. She was aided in her later years by a man young enough to be her grandson.<\/p>\n

You are an octogenarian, and writing a book isn\u2019t easy, as you know. Where do you find the inspiration and the strength to keep going as a creator? <\/b><\/p>\n

What keeps me going is what kept my subjects flourishing in their seventies, eighties or nineties. Any sort of creative activity involves expression, which is a great antidote to depression. It may take the form of sculpting, painting, playing an instrument, teaching a dance routine, making a quilt or a garden, establishing a park or a prize, you name it. Without my two current writing projects, I\u2019d be lost. Even (or maybe especially) in our dismal political climate, ongoing creative projects make each day an adventure.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcf0 The Week(s) in Books \"Five <\/a> <\/p>\n

Paula L. Woods writes about five crime novels to read this summer and their authors reveal the writers who inspire them.<\/p>\n

(Angel City Press at the Los Angeles Public Library)<\/p>\n

Heather Scott Partington reviews \u201cFox,\u201d<\/b><\/a> Joyce Carol Oates\u2019 mystery novel about a murdered pedophile<\/a>. \u201cFox has the bones of a potboiler but is supported by the sinew of the author\u2019s elegant structure and syntax,\u201d writes Partington .<\/p>\n

Leigh Haber weighs in<\/a> on Jess Walter\u2019s book \u201cSo Far Gone,\u201d<\/b><\/a> calling the author a \u201cslyly adept social critic [who has] clearly invested his protagonist with all of the outrage and heartbreak he himself feels about the dark course our world has taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel Felsenthal thinks Geoff Dyer\u2019s<\/a> memoir \u201cHomework\u201d<\/b><\/a> is somewhat meandering, yet \u201cbursts with working-class pride, a fond and mournful belief in the possibility of the British welfare state.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Paula L. Woods talked to five mystery writers<\/a> about the inspirations for their new books.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcd6 Bookstore Faves \"In <\/a> <\/p>\n

Chevalier\u2019s Books in the neighborhood of Larchmont in Los Angeles, April 10, 2024.<\/p>\n

(Shelby Moore \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

This week, we\u2019re talking about hot books with Nat Eastman, the manager of Chevalier\u2019s Books on Larchmont Boulevard in Hollywood<\/a>, the oldest independent bookstore in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

What books are selling in the store right now?<\/b><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been moving Percival Everett\u2019s \u201cJames\u201d<\/b><\/a> and Ocean Vuong\u2019s \u201cThe Emperor of Gladness\u201d<\/b><\/a> hand over fist. Thanks to BookTok<\/a>, Asako Yuzuki\u2019s \u201cButter\u201d<\/b><\/a> has become a mainstay on our bestseller list. We also had the honor of hosting Bryan Byrdlong for a reading from his debut poetry collection \u201cStrange Flowers,\u201d<\/b><\/a> and we\u2019ve been handselling it right and left ever since.<\/p>\n

What are your perennial sellers? <\/b><\/p>\n

Kaya Doi\u2019s series of picture books, \u201cChirri and Chirra,\u201d<\/b><\/a> is a smash hit around here. Joan Didion and bell hooks are reliable customer favorites as well. As an indie shop, though, we love the deeper cuts too \u2014 whether that\u2019s \u201c\u00c1gua Viva,\u201d<\/b><\/a> literally any Yoko Ogawa work or something from our zine collection.<\/p>\n

Are you seeing more young people buying books?<\/b><\/p>\n

Despite all the reports about declining literacy rates among young folk, our children\u2019s section makes up a quarter of our sales. We really try to carve out a space for the next generation of readers with programs like storytime, a middle-grade book club and summer-reading punch cards. To us, messy shelves are annoying everywhere except the kids\u2019 section!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In this week\u2019s newsletter, we have a chat with Susan Gubar, whose new book, \u201cGrand Finales: The Creative…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[3601,3602,3604,1022,3596,3606,3603,3605,171,3607,2323,3599,3600,2252,3597,3598,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-2674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-author","9":"tag-bestselling-novelist-silvia-moreno","10":"tag-book-exploder","11":"tag-books","12":"tag-chef","13":"tag-conversation","14":"tag-daughter","15":"tag-doctor-moreau","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-fiction","18":"tag-garcia","19":"tag-keith-corbin","20":"tag-l-a-times-book-club-newsletter","21":"tag-life","22":"tag-memoir","23":"tag-thrills","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114722030494007433","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}