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Advanced Praise for 80

“Everyone from 9-90 needs this book, because save for the two or three mad people in the world, everyone wants to live never die. The selected people in “80” have with, charm and ensusiance revealed how they have survived, with passion, compassion, humor and style. I hope Gardner and Bellows will do another one on 90 - I am in for the long run.”—Maya Angelou

“80 is the new young! These inspiring stories of vibrant, active octogenarians are the best kind of tonic for warding off worries about old age.”
—Tom Brokaw

“Once, almost nobody was eighty. Now many of us are and more of us are going to be soon. So Gerald Gardner and Jim Bellows give us a wonderful book about being eighty and more.”—Jimmy Breslin

“A joy to read and a guaranteed attitude adjustment. These people are hope! And Gerald Gardner and Jim Bellows know how to edit down their famous lives to the fearless truths.”—Gail Sheehy, author of Passages and Sex and the Seasoned Woman

“Jim Bellows’ and Gerald Gardner’s 80 made me laugh, 80 made me think, and 80 actually made me look forward to reaching and to enjoying that Grand Age”—Mark Shields, syndicated columnist and PBS commentator

"I love this book. What  a pleasure: great interviews, lovely wise people."—Annie Lamott, author of Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith

“Don’t be surprised, Pussycat,” said Helen Gurley Brown, still flirtatious at eighty-four, “We’re all survivors and proud of it.
We want to talk about it.”

And they do. Eighty of America’s most famous eightyyear-olds reflect on their journeys to the big 8-0 and describe the passions that keep them young. They all have opinions about today’s world what is good about being eighty and what keeps them vital. The members of this generation have spent eighty-plus years honing the art of living and they have secrets to share. Their personal stories are truly inspirational.

Contributors to the book include:

Studs Terkel, 94, has broken his neck, had heart surgery at 93 and claims, "I should be dead, but I'm not for some reason or another." What reason might that be? "First of all, I like being a "troublemaker."

86-year-old Ray Bradbury's answer to growing old, "whether you're growing to be twenty, or forty, or sixty, or eighty, is to fall in love and stay in love. Love covers everything and impels you into the future and you arrive at the age of eighty-five a damned happy person."

Lena Horne, 89, remains as politically engaged as ever: "Am I looking for something new? Yes, I'm always looking to see new things in people-especially politicians. Nancy Wilson said, "Everyone sees Lena Horne as a beautiful, sophisticated lady, but there is a fierce lioness in this woman." Well, I'm old and I'm still angry."

Dominique Dunne is 80 and has never worked harder: "I have a monthly diary in Vanity Fair magazine that is widely read. I am shortly to finish my next novel, called The Solo Act, and I have a weekly television series called Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege and Justice. I'm doing them all. There are two documentaries being made about my life for French Television and Australian Television.
Maria Tallchief, 81, former prima ballerina maintains the same routine: "I wake up in the morning and I do my pilates exercises. I still do my splits at my bedside before I say my prayers."

Actress Gloria Stuart, 86, has recently picked up a hobby in artist's bookmaking: "That means that I design the book, I illustrate it, I write it, I set the type, I print it. The only thing I don't do is bind or make the paper, and that's because I started so late in life. I don't have the time, and it's too late for me to learn them. They are such elaborate and demanding arts. The Library of Congress has all the books I've designed-and the Metropolitan Museum, the Getty, the Huntington Library, the Morgan, the Clark Library. I'm very busy now printing a book on the Butterfly Kite."

Marv Levy, 81, former manager of the Buffalo Bills, has had to slow down a bit: "My habits have changed through the years. I don't run five miles a day anymore. Three miles is enough."

“80 is the most heartening book on old age I've read since De Senectute (Cicero, you callow sub-octogenarians, Cicero). The 80 old folks in 80 make 80 sound so fascinating, I feel short-changed by being forced to wait until 2010 to be among their number.”—Tom Wolfe