Life Doesn't Begin at 40

The belief is widespread that while boxers and big-league ballplayers are old at 40, that is just the age when giants in the arts and sciences begin to hit their stride. Not so, says Ohio University's Professor Harvey C. Lehman in Age and Achievement (Princeton University; $7.50). In nearly every field of creative activity, claims Psychologist Lehman, the greatest men register their greatest achievements* by the time they are 40.

Science. In chemistry, Dr. Lehman finds, the most creative thinkers did their best work in the age range from 26 to 30; in mathematics, physics, electronics, botany and practical inventions, from 30 to 34. What about Thomas Alva Edison, who was still making highly practical inventions in his 80s? No exception, says Dr. Lehman. A breakdown of the number of patents Edison took out year by year shows a Himalayan peak of activity in his 30s and only molehills later.

The greatest achievements of Kepler and Darwin, Ohm and Marie Curie fall within or near Dr. Lehman's age ranges. But Galileo was a partial exception: he seems to have done as well at 17 and 73 as in his 30s.

The Arts. Composers, according to Dr. Lehman, write their best symphonies and songs between 30 and 34 (this would cover few of Schubert's songs, since he died at 31; it includes Beethoven's Eroica, but not his Ninth). Chamber music and grand opera written between 35 and 39 have achieved the greatest fame. Wagner wrote Tannhaeuser and Lohengrin in his 30s, and by 40 was working on The Ring. Verdi was a clear exception. He churned out 25 operas by the time he was 58, then went into semiretirement. Meanwhile, Wagner's fame soared. At 74 Verdi began again, and in six years wrote Falstaff and Otello, considered by many his masterpieces.

Poetry clearly needs the inspiration of youth. The best odes, by Dr. Lehman's reckoning, are written between 24 and 28, pastoral and narrative poems and elegies from 25 to 29, sonnets and lyric poems a year or two later. Notwithstanding Bernard Shaw, who started to write plays around 40, most dramatists do their best in their 30s: comedies from 32 to 36 (e.g., Shakespeare's As You Like It), tragedies from 34 to 38 (Hamlet and Racine's Iphigenie). Novelists are most likely to hit the jackpot between 40 and 44.

Painters of the past did their masterpieces in oil from 32 to 36. Raphael did the Sistine Madonna at 35 and died at 37. Yet Da Vinci worked on The Last Supper in his 40s. And the durable Michelangelo, who lived to be 89, is best remembered for his The Last Judgment, done at 59-66.

Philosophy & Statecraft. The traditional picture of the philosopher as a bearded oldster is all wrong, too, says Dr. Lehman. The most notable contributions to ethics, logic, economics, political science and esthetics have been made by men in their 30s (metaphysicians run five years older). Spinoza began his major work when he was 23 and finished it by 43; Schopenhauer published his masterpiece (The World as Will and Idea) at 31. But a few of the best-known philosophers were laggards: Kant spent the years from 46 to 57 on The Critique of Pure Reason.

Statesmanship does not fit the rules. Political leaders (most of them, according to Psychologist Lehman, not original creative thinkers or artists) are usually not at their best till they are over 50. Moreover, today's statesmen are older, on the average, than in previous epochs. William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister at 25 in 1784, Sir Winston Churchill not until he was 66.

Dr. Lehman does not try to analyze businessmen's achievements. He merely notes that they make most money in their 60s.

Why creative talent seems to decline after 40 Dr. Lehman does not know. No doubt, he says, there are many contributing causes--a decline in physical vigor; impairment of hearing, vision, and muscular coordination; more concern with practical problems of making a living, instead of reaching for the stars. Dr. Lehman, at any rate, is an exception to his rule. He rates Age and Achievement as his own greatest achievement, and he is 64.

* To determine which are the "greatest" achievements, Lehman consulted specialists in each field, checked and coordinated their lists (e.g., Olin Downes's Symphonic Masterpieces, H. B. Lemon's From Galileo to Cosmic Rays) of what they considered the outstanding contributions. Because a man still living may yet produce his masterpiece, this study of scientists and artists covers mainly dead "greats."

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