The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man

One of our nation’s most prominent writers finds the truth about easy methods to live a long and happy life within the centenarian next door.

When a veteran Washington journalist moved to Kansas, he met a new neighbor who was once more than a century old. Little did he know that he was once beginning a long friendship—and a profound lesson within the meaning of life. Charlie White was once no atypical neighbor. Born before radio, Charlie lived long enough to make use of a smartphone. When a shocking tragedy interrupted his idyllic boyhood, Charlie mastered survival strategies that reflect thousands of years of human wisdom. Thus armored, Charlie’s sense of adventure carried him on an epic journey around the continent, and later found him swinging across bandstands of the Jazz Age, racing aboard ambulances through Depression-era gangster wars, improvising techniques for early open-heart surgery, and cruising the Amazon as a guest of Peru’s president.

David Von Drehle came to remember the fact that Charlie’s resilience and willingness to grow made this remarkable neighbor a master within the art of thriving through times of dramatic change. As a gift to his children, he got down to tell Charlie’s secrets. The Book of Charlie is a gospel of grit—the inspiring story of one man’s journey through a century of upheaval. The history that unfolds through Charlie’s story reminds you that the USA has at all times been a divided nation, a questing nation, an inventive nation—a nation of Charlies within the rollercoaster pursuit of a good and meaningful life.