A Coming of Age: My Journey into the Eighties

Twenty-five years ago, Madeleine Kunin became the first woman to be elected governor of Vermont.She was U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and U.S. deputy secretary of education. This is her personal story.

Many readers are already familiar with Madeline Kunin, the former three-term Governor of Vermont, who served as the Deputy Secretary of Education and Ambassador to Switzerland under President Bill Clinton. In her newest book, a memoir entitled A Coming of Age to Eighty, the topic is aging, but she looks well beyond the physical tolls and explores the emotional ones as well. And she has had an extraordinary life: governor, ambassador, feminist, wife, mother, professor, poet, and much, much more.As recently reported in the New York Times, a girl born today can expect to live to the age of ninety, on average (boys, on the other hand, can expect to live until age eighty-five). Life expectancy, for many, is increasing, yet people rarely contemplate the emotional changes that come alongside the physical changes of aging. Madeleine wants to change that.A Coming-of-Age to Eighty takes a close and incisive look at what it is like to grow old. The book is a memoir, yet most important of all, it is an honest and positive look at aging and how it has affected her life.