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Old Age

About This Item

  • Title: Old Age
  • Date: 14 May 1857
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.00732
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 14 May 1857: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Christian Brauns Alexandra J. R. Brennan Thara Michaelis Jamie DeRousse Stefan Schöberlein Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Old Age." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 16 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.00732.xml (TEI)
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OLD AGE.—

We the other day mentioned the good chances for old age, in these United States. A foreign paper has a letter from Russia, describing a peasant named Michael Kniawelkis, who had attained the age of 137 years, 10 months, and 11 days. He was married at the age of 19, and has had, by several wives, 32 children, one of whom, a daughter, is still living, at the age of 100. He had never had any serious illness: some years before his death he complained that he could not read without glasses; but to the last day he retained the use of all his faculties, and was very cheerful. He frequently said that he thought death had forgotten him.

Examples of great longevity are not rare in Russia. According to an official rgport​ there were, in 1828, in the empire, 828 centenarians, of whom 40 had exceeded 120 years; fifteen, 130; nine, 136; and three, 138 years. In the government of Moscow there died, in 1830, a man aged 150. In the government of Keiff an old soldier died, in 1866, at the age of 153.

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