Taking Retirement CL: A Beginner's Diary

As he neared the end of his five-year period of progressive retirement, Klaus, founder of the nonfiction writing program at the University of Iowa, was perplexed to realize that he still wasn't ready to exchange his professional status and the admiration of his writing students--let alone his campus office--for the respected, if somewhat toothless, title of professor emeritus. Thus he turned to the writing form he had been teaching in order to grapple with the problem. This journal, which begins with his last semester of classes and ends at the start of the new academic year some nine months later, chronicles Klaus's growing acceptance of his change of life. With several books in print, a loving wife, a passionate interest in gardening and food and a healthy pension, he is free of the terrors of loneliness, boredom and poverty. Still, for much of the journal, despite the brisk advice of his wife and some female friends to get on with his life, he mourns his prospective loss of status. There are no stunning revelations, merely a gradual accommodation to his new situation and, ultimately, the surprised realization that he's glad no longer to be teaching. Klaus's circumstances are so fortunate that his concerns are likely to appear remote to many prospective retirees. Nevertheless, the issue uppermost in his mind--the loss of identity resulting from retirement--will speak to most. (Sept.)