10th
Our urban generation may be increasingly slower to get married and settled down, but are we equally slow at producing our best work? This article proves that the greatest literature was overwhelmingly written when the authors were young. And that many authors actually reached their creative peaks young, while the work that followed in their later years was less significant. Hemingway was 27 when he wrote The Sun Also Rises. Fitzgerald was 28 when The Great Gatsby came out.
Faulkner lagged slightly behind. He had just turned 32 when “The Sound and the Fury” was published. Then again, it was his fourth novel.
Carson McCullers was only 22(!) when she wrote The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. The Romantic poets were boys! I know we’re also living longer lives these days. But still.
At book signings or cooking demos, so many passers-by have looked at me and looked at my book on the table and said, “Wow, you wrote a book already, and you’re so young.” I just hope it’s not the last.
