Introduction

Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man and Life's Greatest Lesson is a 1997 memoir by American author Mitch Albom. The book is about a series of visits Albom made to his former Brandeis University sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz, as Schwartz was dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).[1][2] Albom's subsequent memoir has been widely reviewed and has received critical attention after features by The Boston Globe and Nightline about Schwartz's dying.[1][3][4][5][6]

The book spent 206 weeks on the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestsellers List and remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for several years;[7] as of 2006, it was the best-selling memoir of all time.[2]

Synopsis

Author Mitch Albom is a successful sports columnist. In 1995, Albom contacts his former sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz, after seeing him on Nightline afflicted with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Albom is prompted to visit Schwartz in Massachusetts, where a coincidental newspaper strike allows him to visit every Tuesday. The book is divided into 14 days, each containing one of Albom's visits 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.[8]

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, Albom became a journalist and later an author, screenwriter, and television/radio broadcaster In college, 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.[9] 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 Schwartz 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 November 4, 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][10] 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.[10]

Reception

Critical

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

Publication history

Albom, Mitch (1997). Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man and Life's Greatest Lesson (1st ed.). New York, NY: Doubleday. ISBN 0385484518. OCLC 36130729. Retrieved May 22, 2023. Hardcover. The ISBN-13 for this version is stated as 9780385484510. Note, not all Wikipedia Inbox information is confirmed by these sources.

Other editions

An unabridged audiobook was also published and 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 tenth anniversary in 2007.[11]

Adaptations

The book was adapted into a 1999 television film directed by Mick Jackson, starring Jack Lemmon.[12] as Schwartz and Hank Azaria as Albom.

The book's author, Mitch Albom, and esteemed playwright Jeffrey Hatcher joined forces for a stage play adaptation that premiered Off-Broadway in November 2002 at the Minetta Lane Theatre. Directed by David Esbjornson, it starred Alvin Epstein as Schwartz and Jon Tenney as Albom. A revival of the play, featuring Len Cariou as Schwartz and Chris Domig as Albom, was presented by the Sea Dog Theater company at St. George's Episcopal Church in the spring of 2024.[13]