Barzun at 100

And...today(11.30) is Jacques Barzun's 100th birthday. The TIME cover is from 1956, and the inset photo(courtesy incidentlights.com) is from 1997. Incidentally Barzun settled in my home town, San Antonio, when he retired in 1996. I used to know a guy whom I like to call Lothar Scruggs, who served as a research assistant for him not so long ago. (Barzun has continued(continues?) to crank out books well into his 90s, even though he retired from publishing and teaching.)

If you are reading this Lothar, you should look ole Barzun up and get him a cake or something, and maybe some Sprite. I mean, if you haven't already. I'll bet he'd like to hear from you.

Barzun was fully "alert to the irony of aging," commenting from experience that: "Old age is like learning a new profession. And not one of your own choosing."

Age of Reason by Arthur Krystal in The New Yorker, October 22, 2007, p. 103

via Wikipedia's Barzun entry.

and a Jacques Barzun interview on Charlie Rose, here.