“My father retells in his book how Norman Cousins cured himself of a life-threatening disease by watching comedy movies. He also thought that things in the book, like laughter, meditation, and spiritual connection, could apply to any age,” Schwartz recounted. I was very happy to talk about how to approach the issues he was thinking about. I had studied philosophy at university, so I like abstract thinking, figuring things out. “During those four months he was writing this book, it was exactly when I was living at home, and so we discussed his ideas on a daily basis. Schwartz recalled, “It’s very sad to think about what my dad had to suffer through, but the dignity he showed and the bravery was so inspiring for so many people we can take comfort in that.”Īt the time Morrie that had been working on his book about the aging process, his younger son, Rob, had been traveling in Asia and had just returned home to Boston in the summer of 1989. If I can’t control the illness, I’m not going to let it control my moods, attitudes, and emotional states.’ As it became more difficult for me, I became more determined to learn something, to derive some benefit from this misery.” I’m going to fight to regain my foothold in life. “I also remember the small voice in me saying, ‘No, I will not quit. I remember the pull just to ‘give up’ – surrender to the illness and sink into inactivity, depression, and minimal existence. In it, he writes, “After retirement, I faced the question: ‘What should I do with the rest of my life?’ I recall, at the height of my struggle with asthma, trying to fight off despair about ever getting back to a place where I was content with my functioning and my feelings. THE BOOK The Wisdom of Morrie was initiated by a friend who suggested that Morrie write a book about aging after his retirement at 70 from Brandeis University. My father was an academic, although The Wisdom of Morrie is not an academic book,” he pointed out. ![]() Tuesdays is a very slim volume with a very concise use of words. But they’re very different books in fact, opposite in style. ![]() Both have the same thing at their core – my father’s philosophy about life. “The warmth that comes through with the student-teacher relationship is also the way that my father relates to people. “That’s why editing was so important,” he said, calling The Wisdom of Morrie bookends to Mitch Albom’s memoir. Schwartz noted that as an academic, his father could be wordy. People find it unbelievable, since my father is a public figure through Tuesdays with Morrie, that he didn’t know how to publish a non-academic book in the 1990s, so the book just sat there.” By the time I found the manuscript, Tuesdays with Morrie was a huge success. In 1992 he put it in a desk drawer, and nobody thought about it until I found it 10 years later. My father wrote this book from first to last before I started to edit it. “I certainly have been working very hard to get the word out about The Wisdom of Morrie. ![]() “I would like to say no, but perhaps the answer is yes,” Schwartz laughed while on vacation in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Having been made into a movie, an off-Broadway play, and performed in multiple languages on stages across the globe, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that there’s some pressure on Rob Schwartz in undertaking the editing of his father’s last book. Tuesdays with Morrie far exceeded anyone’s expectations, staying on the bestseller charts for years, selling more than 18 million copies to date. Schwartz is mindful that Tuesdays with Morrie was one of the best-selling books of the 20th century, a memoir that made his father posthumously a household name. A WINTER shot of Morrie in Brookline, Massachusetts. Morrie was 78 when he was diagnosed with ALS in July 1994. ![]() Tuesdays with Morrie, published in 1997, is a memoir divided into 14 different “days” in which sports writer Mitch Albom recalls sitting down with his former college professor and discussing topics related to a meaningful life, final lessons from a beloved teacher dying of ALS.Īmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rare neurological disease with a life expectancy upon diagnosis of two to five years.
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