Late Bloomers

A late bloomer is defined as one whose talents are not visible to others until later in life. So in honour of Seniors Week, let's consider some well known literary late bloomers.

• Laure Ingalls Wilder became a newspaper columnist in her forties but did not publish the first book in the Little House series until her sixties.
• The first volume of Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford trilogy was published when she was 63.
• The Pulitzer Prize winning Angela's Ashes was published when Frank McCourt was in his 66th year.
• Mary Wesley's writing career didn't take off until after her first novel was published at age 70 (but she had written two children's books in her late fifties).
• Jean Rhys' best known work Wild Sargasso Sea was first published in 1976 when she was 76.

So celebrate Seniors Week by trying these and other "late bloomers" available from Hurstville Library.