Infinite Books

Calvin Tomkins was a writer born in 1925, the same year as The New Yorker. For many years, he was a staff writer, contributing nearly 400 articles to the magazine, including insightful profile features on artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Robert Rauschenberg. He also wrote several books, including a biography of Marcel Duchamp, which remains one of the best resources on the artist. On the hundredth anniversary of The New Yorker, he decided to write a diary for a year, just as the magazine celebrated its milestone with special features and published books.

“Centenarian” is a slim, insightful, and beautiful book, one that I read with great interest. Calvin Tomkins’ intelligence, curiosity, and sense of humor show on every page.  He was a man devoted to observing art, literature, and music, and maybe most of all, people: great artists and ordinary people alike. He also observed himself, especially as he got old.  Old age slowed him down: he had to interrupt his writing for naps, limit social engagements to a few and far apart, and eventually, as his eyes deteriorated, dictate his diary to his beloved wife, Dodie Kazanjian. Yet his mind stayed sharp.

It is fascinating to read what the writers share when they get older and reflect on their life journeys. “Centenarian” follows other books I recently read on age and life in general by Julian Barnes and Paul Auster.  With short, elegant, and often humorous diary entries, Calvin Tomkins – Tad, as his friends and almost everybody called him – gave me a glimpse into the last year of his life. And what a life it was!

CENTENARIAN by Calvin Tomkins, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2027