Tuesdays with Morrie
First edition
AuthorMitch Albom
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreBiographical, Philosophical novel, Memoir
PublisherDoubleday
Publication date
1997
Pages192
ISBN0385484518
OCLC36130729
378.1/2/092 B 21
LC ClassLD571.B418 S383 1997

Tuesdays with Morrie, originally titled to have this followed by, "An Old Man, A Young Man and Life's Greatest Lesson", is a 1997 memoir by American author Mitch Albom about a series of visits Albom made to his former sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz, as Schwartz was dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).[1][2] Following on features by The Boston Globe and Nightline about Schwartz's dying,[3][4][5][6] Albom's subsequent memoir has been widely reviewed, and has received critical attention.[1] The book topped the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestsellers List for 23 combined weeks in 2000, remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for several years, and was, as of 2006, the best selling memoir of all time.[2]

Synopsis

The year is 1995. After seeing his former sociology professor Morrie Schwartz appear on Nightline afflicted with ALS, Mitch Albom, a successful sports columnist, phones Schwartz and is prompted to visit him in Massachusetts. A coincidental newspaper strike allows Albom to visit Schwartz every week, on Tuesdays. The book, divided into 14 different days, recounts each of the fourteen visits Albom made to Schwartz. Each visit includes lectures from Morrie on life experiences with flashbacks and references to contemporary events. Schwartz's final days, ultimately, are spent giving Albom his final lesson of life.

Main characters

Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom was born in May 1958 in New Jersey. Originally, he was a pianist and wanted to pursue a life as a musician. Instead he became a journalist, and later an author, screenwriter, and television/radio broadcaster. In his college years, he met sociology professor Dr. Morrie Schwartz, who would later be the focal point of the memoir Tuesdays with Morrie.

Morrie Schwartz

Morrie Schwartz was a sociology professor at Brandeis University who was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, at the age of 77 in August 1994.[7] The son of Russian immigrants, Schwartz had a difficult childhood, indelibly marked by the death of his mother and his brother's infection with the polio virus. He later went on to work as a researcher in a mental hospital, where he learned about mental illness and how to have empathy and compassion for other people; later in life, he decided to become a sociology professor in hopes of putting his accumulated wisdom to use. This is where he met his student Mitch Albom, who would later become a lifelong friend. Schwartz was married to Charlotte Schwartz, with whom he had two children. After a long battle with ALS, Schwartz died on 4 November, 1995. His tombstone reads, "A teacher until the end."

The Boston Globe and Nightline antecedents

In March 1995, Jack Thomas of The Boston Globe wrote a piece on Schwartz, titled "A Professor's Final Course: His Own Death".[3][4] Ted Koppel became aware of the article, and a decision was made to conduct a series of interviews with Schwartz, which began later in March and which were then edited and presented on Nightline.[5][6][8] It was through this program's airing that Schwartz's former student, Albom, was reminded of his old professor, leading Albom to reach out and reconnect.[8]

Reception

Tuesdays with Morrie topped the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestsellers list for 23 combined weeks in 2000, and as of 2006 had remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for more than four years.[2] In July 2006, Tuesdays with Morrie was the best selling memoir of all time.[2]

Critical

Albom's book has been widely reviewed since its appearance in 1997.[1]

In Season 8, Episode 20 ("Something Something Darkside") of Family Guy, Peter Griffin, playing the character of Han Solo, is seen reading the book.

Publication history

Other editions

An unabridged audiobook was also published, narrated by Albom. The appendix of the audiobook contains several minutes of excerpts from audio recordings that Albom made during his conversations with Schwartz before writing the book.

A new edition with an afterword by Albom was released on the book's ten-year anniversary in 2007.

Adaptations

The book was adapted into a 1999 television film, directed by Mick Jackson and starring Hank Azaria and Jack Lemmon.[9]

The book was also adapted as a stage play, also titled Tuesdays with Morrie, that opened off-Broadway in November 2002 at the Minetta Lane Theatre. Co-written by Jeffrey Hatcher (Three Viewings) and Mitch Albom, directed by David Esbjornson (The Goat or Who Is Sylvia?), it starred stage veterans Alvin Epstein as Schwartz and Jon Tenney as Albom.[10] It received positive reviews.

See also

Articles on other Albom books

References

  1. 1 2 3 de Botton, Alain (November 23, 1997). "Continuing Ed" (book review). The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2023. Who was Morris Schwartz, who died in 1995, and what did he have to say that Albom found so helpful? Schwartz came from a family of destitute Lower East Side Russian Jews and became a leading member of the Brandeis sociology faculty. He was a genial fellow, whom Albom describes as looking, in his commencement robes, like a cross between a biblical prophet and a Christmas elf. He loved to laugh and dance, he was irreverent toward those in authority and kind to the underprivileged. He was an inspiration to his students and a loving husband and family man. / Albom's book is divided into chapters that give us Schwartz's attitudes toward death, fear, aging, greed, marriage, family, society, forgiveness and a meaningful life. The professor was not afraid of big statements: Love always wins, Money is not a substitute for tenderness, Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live. One gets whiffs of Jesus, the Buddha, Epicurus, Montaigne and Erik Erikson. Schwartz's advice to Albom boils down to recommendations that he should work less, think more about his wife, give himself to others and remember he has to die. / Unfortunately, such true and sometimes touching pieces of advice don't add up to a very wise book. Though Albom insists that Schwartz's words have transformed him, it's hard to see why, to judge from the evidence in Tuesdays With Morrie. To be told that we should think more of love and less of money is no doubt correct, but it's hard to put such advice into practice unless it is accompanied by some understanding of why we ever did otherwise. Because Albom fails to achieve any real insight into his own previously less-than-exemplary life, it's difficult for the reader to trust in his spiritual transformation. Albom describes Schwartz's effect on others, including him, but never quite captures the effect itself. Despite the obvious charm and good nature of both author and subject, in the end, the exhortations fall flat. Just as a well-meaning statement like We should all live in peace doesn't help avert wars, Tuesdays with Morrie finally fails to enlighten.
  2. 1 2 3 4 DePauw Staff (July 20, 2006). "Bestselling Author of Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom, to Present Ubben Lecture November 13". DePauw News & Media. Archived from the original on October 9, 2015. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  3. 1 2 Thomas, Jack (March 9, 1995). "A Professor's Final Course: His Own Death". BostonGlobe.com (Living section). Retrieved May 22, 2023. Note, the date presented in this reference is of that of the original publication, rather than the October 19, 2022 date of its republication from that newspaper's archive.
  4. 1 2 Harris, Richard (March 15, 2015). "Nearly 20 years After His Death, Morrie Schwartz Lives On". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  5. 1 2 Koppel Ted & Schwartz, Morrie (March 1995). Conversations with Morrie: Lessons on Living. Nightline. Retrieved May 22, 2023 – via YouTube.com. Note, the date presented in this reference is of that of the original event broadcast, though the specific date on a Friday is unknown; it is not the October 1, 2016 presentation date for the video at YouTube. As a non-standard and non-original source lacking that original dating, this citation should be replaced with an authentic video from ABC News.
  6. 1 2 Koppel, Ted & Albom, Mitch (July 14, 1998). Morrie: A Man Teaches Others How to Live and Die. ABC News. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  7. ↑ Brooks, Rich (May 14, 2005). "ALS forced two men to make different choices, and both are valid". Herald-Tribune. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
  8. 1 2 Albom, Mitch (November 21, 2008). "Professor Turns Dying into a Final Lesson". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved May 22, 2023 – via MitchAlbom.com.
  9. ↑ Shriver, Ryan (2010). "Tuesdays With Morrie (1999)—Directed by: Mick Jackson". All Media Guide-Baseline. Archived from the original (film overview) on March 24, 2014 – via The New York Times. Note, this source contains no information about the 1997 book.
  10. ↑ Gutman, Les (November 2002). "A CurtainUp Review: Tuesdays with Morrie". CurtainUp. Retrieved May 22, 2023. While the interviews (parts of which I've seen in re-runs) afford a stunning look behind the veneer of the dying process, the book (none of which I have read), and now the play, do not seriously scratch the surface. They are as much about Albom as Schwartz and, though they reënforce the point made by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in her seminal work, Of Death and Dying (that there is much to be learned about life from those who are dying), they impart the lessons learned predictably and without any particular enlightenment. / What the play does do quite successfully is manipulate the audience's emotions, albeit without great subtlety. Morrie is one of those people who enjoys a good cry; Mitch is not. Albom's play (co-written with Jeffrey Hatcher) will have the desired effect for those who fall in Morrie's camp. It will also succeed in delivering a "message" to those who are suckers for simplistic self-help pablum. That's a large constituency: the book spent four years on the New York Times Bestseller List despite a review in the same paper that said, "[d]espite the obvious charm and good nature of both author and subject, in the end, the exhortations fall flat." / The same could be said for the play. But in this production at least, it offers an attraction that the book can't: two sterling performances. / ... / This may well be one of those shows (much like the original book) that finds a huge and devoted audience despite critical carping. Even those who don't fall in that category will be rewarded with some thrilling performances.

Further reading

  • Koppel, Ted & Albom, Mitch (July 14, 1998). Morrie: A Man Teaches Others How to Live and Die. ABC News. Retrieved May 22, 2023. Koppel and Albom discuss the origin of their individual relationships with the late Prof. Morrie Schwartz.
  • Managed Care Staff (2006). "Tuesdays with Morrie". Managed Care. Langhorne, PA. 11 (2 (Suppl.)): 31–3. PMID 11907999. Retrieved May 22, 2023. Value of this reference is unknown, as it has no online content whatsoever; it may be to a review of the work, or to a list posting to call attention to the new audio edition.
  • Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Books on Tape. ISBN 9780739346150. OCLC 1002100368. This citation, when verified and complete, would better appear in the Publication history section.
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