Aging and creativity can seem a particularly fraught relationship for artists, who often face age-related difficulties as their audience’s expectations are at a peak. In Four Last Songs, Linda and Michael Hutcheon explore this issue via the late works of some of the world’s greatest composers. Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901), Richard Strauss (1864–1949), Olivier Messiaen (1908–92), and Benjamin Britten (1913–76) all wrote operas late in life, pieces that reveal unique responses to the challenges of growing older. Verdi’s Falstaff, his only comedic success, combated Richard Wagner’s influence by introducing young Italian composers to a new model of national music. Strauss, on the other hand, struggling with personal and political problems in Nazi Germany, composed the self-reflexive Capriccio, a “life review” of opera and his own legacy. Though it exhausted him physically and emotionally, Messiaen at the age of seventy-five finished his only opera, Saint François d’Assise, which marked the pinnacle of his career. Britten, meanwhile, suffering from heart problems, refused surgery until he had completed his masterpiece, Death in Venice. For all four composers, age, far from sapping their creative power, provided impetus for some of their best accomplishments. With its deft treatment of these composers’ final years and works, Four Last Songs provides a valuable look at the challenges—and opportunities—that present themselves as artists grow older.

Product Description: Cognitive Aging and the Role of Strategy is the  English Language edition of ‘Vieillissement cognitif et variations stratégiques’, oriiginally published in French . Lemaire is a well-respected professor and  text-book author of Cognitive Psychology in France and his English language edition will have updated content on theories of cognitive aging to provide a broad view of adult development and the aging process...read more

Product Description: As the baby boomer generation becomes senior citizens and starts to flood into the last stage of life, a new definition and new expectations of retirement and aging are evolving. This is not your father’s way of being an older adult...read more

Learning to live with one's own aging is the new task: making an art of what once was a given - growing older; turning our society's anti-aging bias into a true art of aging that will enable us to live with rather than against the inevitable. In ten practical steps, this book teaches you how to welcome and embrace growing older with gelassenheit ('gue-láh-sen-hite') - the 'feeling and the knowledge that we are cradled in the arms of infinity' - at any age.

Product Description: Written by a renowned scholar and practitioner of gerontology and aging, this is a concise, reader-friendly overview of key concepts of geropsychology, thepsychology of aging. Grounded in positive psychology, the text dispels common myths about the aging population with a wealth of evidence-based research...read more

Product Description: With the aspiration for a long life now achievable for many individuals, the status of old age as a distinct social position has become problematic. In this radical re-examination of the nature of old age, Paul Higgs and Chris Gilleard reveal the emergence of a 'fourth age' that embodies the most feared and marginalised aspects of old age, conceptually linked to and yet distinct from traditional models of old age...read more

Product Description: Winner of 9 national book awards, Do Not Go Quietly is an inspiring call to action and guide to a life of greater meaning, consciousness, and passion for those "who weren't born yesterday"―GenXers, Boomers, and Elders. It also speaks honestly and eloquently to those under 40 who want to better navigate the path ahead and better understand the world for which they will soon be responsible...read more

With her signature blend of wit, no-nonsense advice, and storytelling flair, Mireille Guiliano returns with a delightful, encouraging take on beauty and aging for our times.

Product Description: The fears of aging have been one long cascading domino effect through the years: twenty year-olds dread thirty; forty year-olds fear fifty; sixty fears seventy, and so it goes. And there is something to worry about, though it isn't what you'd expect: research shows that having a bad attitude toward aging when we're young is associated with poorer health when we're older...read more

Product Description: Whether you provide care for older people, or you are simply interested in ageing, this complete primer on the psychology of ageing explains the key issues clearly and concisely. Beginning with explanations of ageing, life expectancy and demographics, it goes on to discuss the aspects of ageing that have the most impact on people's lives...read more

Product Description: A practicing physician and NIH-funded researcher draws on her research and experience to show that our outlook on life ? our unique patterns of thinking and feeling about ourselves, others, and the world ? may be the key to how well and how fast we age...read more