Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
Julie Andrews was 13 when she first performed in front of royalty. The star of stage and screen was born into a musical family and started singing and acting professionally in 1947, when she was 12. A year later she appeared in a Royal Variety Performance, where she was heard and applauded by the future Queen Elizabeth II. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
Julie Andrews was 13 when she performed for the future Queen Elizabeth II
Woodruff Home for the Aged, where aging with dignity battles corporate greed
Nelson Mandela was nearly 76 when he was elected President of South Africa in the country’s first vote open to all races. The anti-apartheid leader was sentenced to life in prison in 1964, released in 1990, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk in 1993. Mandela himself was elected President in 1994 with 62% of the vote. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
Nelson Mandela nearly 76 when elected President of South Africa
Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die
My Goodreads and Amazon review of And There Was Light: The Extraordinary Memoir of a Blind Hero of the French Resistance in World War II (Rated 4) – In-sight. From the moment an accident renders him blind at age eight, Jacques Lusseyran, author of the 1953 memoir And There Was Light, discovers his inner vision. Not only does he rely on his other senses to perceive the world, he creates an interior vision keener than the one he had when sighted. A voice conjures an entire face, a smell paints a full-color picture, touch reveals a soul. He has insights into human nature, history, and the future that able people won’t or can’t see. After Germany occupies France, the lack of suspicion accorded a blind person enables Lusseyran to undermine the enemy. In 1941, he becomes a leader in a resistance movement that grows from fifty teenage boys to a network of hundreds of young men who distribute an underground newspaper, Defense of France, to over two hundred thousand nationwide. Because writing down the movement’s activities risks discovery, Lussyran’s ability to memorize everything is an invaluable asset. So is his infallible judgement about who to admit to or bar from their ranks. Despite the perils he faces, Lusseyran is buoyed by the friendships of a close-knit inner circle. As an author myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I was moved by the ardor with which he writes about the men who sustain him. From his perspective as a middle-aged author, he marvels as his energy and stamina. Readers will too. Admiration for the author aside, the memoir’s early chapters can be frustrating to read. Lusseyran’s writing is often vague, circling a point rather than saying straight-out what he means. His blindness may help explain why he writes that way. Blindness entails finding alternative paths; it makes one more internally directed. I speak from experience; blind in one eye, I too rely on internal cues to “sense” things hidden from view. The strategy works on a personal level but in a book intended to communicate with others, it’s unsatisfying. Ironically, when Lusseyran enters the resistance and must camouflage his acts, his writing is clear and direct. By the end of the memoir, as readers contemplate today’s threats to democracy, they will long for leaders as capable and courageous as Lusseyran.
Blindness propels rather than prohibits bravery
Why writers read: “We read to know that we are not alone.” – C. S. Lewis
Sir William Lawrence Bragg was only 25 when the Australian-born British physicist shared the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics with his father William Henry Bragg “for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays,” an important step in the development of X-ray crystallography. Bragg remains the youngest Nobel Prize winner in any scientific category. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
Sir William Lawrence Bragg youngest Nobel winner in any science category
Woodruff Home for the Aged, where aging with dignity battles corporate greed
DeWitt Clinton was 48 when, at the beginning of his first term as New York State Governor (1817-1822), he advocated for construction of the Erie Canal. The canal was finished at the beginning of his second term (1825-1828). The first shipping route between the country’s interior and the Atlantic Ocean, the Erie Canal turned New York City into an economic powerhouse. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
NY State Governor DeWitt Clinton had the foresight to build the Erie Canal
Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die
My poem “Last Call” was published in The Avocet: A Journal of Nature Poetry, Fall 2026 print issue. The poem portrays Mother Nature as a barmaid alerting her customers as closing time nears. As the temperature drops, I am already thinking ahead to apt verses for the Winter 2026 issue. Learn more about the journal, which sends a free weekly e-zine, at The Avocet website. Read more about my occasional forays into writing poetry at POEMS.
Seasonal verses for nature-lovers
Why writers write: “I write because in spite of myself I’ve learned some things that I can neither file nor forget.” – Ralph Ellison
Blaise Pascal, age 19, created the first mechanical (digital) calculator in 1642. At 16, the French genius had written a treatise on geometry. A follower of “intuitionism,” he claimed to experience God through the heart rather than reason. In later years, he corresponded with Pierre de Fermat on probability theory, which influenced economics and the social sciences. Who knows what else he’d have accomplished if he hadn’t died at age 39? Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
Pascal was a mathematical genius of invention during his short life
Woodruff Home for the Aged, where aging with dignity battles corporate greed
Japanese mountaineer Yuichiro Miura became the oldest person to summit Mount Everest in 2013, at the age of 80. He was also the first person, at age 38, to ski down Mount Everest by slowing his descent with a parachute. Pushing limits defined his life. Dubbed the Godfather of Extreme Skiing, Miura was motivated by “the joy of forgetting yourself and becoming one with the mountains.” Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
Yuichiro Miura, Godfather of Extreme Skiing, devoted his life to pushing the limits
Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die
Drummer Buddy Rich began performing in vaudeville at 18 months. Born in Brooklyn in 1917, he was still in diapers when he appeared with his family as “Baby Traps, the Drum Wonder.” By age 11, Rich was leading his own band and by adulthood, after adding composing and conducting to his accomplishments, was already considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Rich is best known for his superhuman speed, flawless technique, and showmanship. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
Bernard “Buddy” Rich discovered his affinity for jazz as a toddler
Woodruff Home for the Aged, where aging with dignity battles corporate greed
Ernest Hemingway was 27 when his debut novel The Sun also Rises was published in 1926. His novels, story collections, and non-fiction are classics of American literature, characterized by their pared down language and distinct grammar, often borrowed from Spanish. Easily parodied, but not successfully emulated, Hemingway was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his mastery of the art of narrative and influence he has exerted on contemporary style.” Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
Hemingway, icon of American literature, is easily parodied but unsuccessfully emulated
Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die
