Prof. Jonathan Greenberg publishes new book with Mo Rocca of CBS Sunday Morning

Montclair English professor Jonathan Greenberg has teamed with CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Mo Rocca to create an inspiring collection of stories that celebrates the triumphs of people who made their biggest marks late in life. Together Rocca and Greenberg introduce us to the people past and present who peaked when they could have been puttering—breaking out as writers, selling out concert halls, attempting to set land-speed records—and in the case of one ninety-year tortoise, becoming a first-time father. (Take that, Al Pacino!)

In the vein of their previous collaboration, the New York Times bestseller Mobituaries, Roctogenarians is a collection of entertaining and unexpected profiles of these unretired titans—some long gone (a cancer-stricken Henri Matisse, who began work on his celebrated cut-outs when he could no longer paint), some very much still living (Mel Brooks, yukking it up at close to one hundred). The amazing cast of characters also includes Mary Church Terrell, who at eighty-six helped lead sit-ins at segregated Washington, DC, lunch counters in the 1950s, and Carol Channing, who married the love of her life at eighty-two. Then there’s Peter Mark Roget, who began working on his thesaurus in his twenties and completed it at seventy-three (because sometimes finding the right word takes time.)

Roctogenarians, Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs debuted at #15 on the New York Times Bestseller List for hardcover nonfiction.