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Shop nowTwilight
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Learn moreIn 1992, when Henry Grunwald missed a glass into which he was pouring water, he assumed that he needed new eyeglasses, not that the incident was a harbinger of darker times. But in fact Grunwald was entering the early stages of macular degeneration -- a gradual loss of sight that affects almost 15 million Americans yet remains poorly understood and is, so far, incurable. Now, in Twilight, Grunwald chronicles his experience of disability: the clouding of his sight, and the daily struggle to overcome its physical and psychological implications; the discovery of what medicine can and cannot do to restore sight; his compulsion to understand how the eye works, its evolution, and its symbolic meaning in culture and art.
Grunwald gives us an autobiography of the eye -- his visual awakening as a child and young man, and again as an older man who, facing the loss of sight, feels a growing wonder at the most ordinary acts of seeing. This is a story not merely about seeing but about living; not merely about losing sight but about gaining insight. It is a remarkable meditation.
Henry Grunwald was the editor in chief of Time magazine and all other Time Inc. publications. He served as the U.S. ambassador to Austria and is the author of One Man’s America: A Journalist’s Search for the Heart of His Country. He died in 2005.
Reviews
Advance praise for Twilight:"Twilight is an elegant meditation on the very nature of eyesight, and the private struggle with its dissipation--the condition known inelegantly as macular degeneration, but in Henry Grunwald's astute and affecting prose, nothing less than a journey toward a kind of enlightenment." --Ward Just
"Henry Grunwald has more than enough vision left to give us insight into the mysteries of the human eye--and the human condition. Twilight is a clear-sighted reminder to see all there is to see."--Katharine Graham
"Twilight is wise and original, on one level a riveting, very down-to-earth account of the author's struggle with macular degeneration, on another a work of the imagination--a gifted writer flying high, letting his curiosity and artistry take him and the reader into strange and unexpected places." --Mary Ellin Barrett
"I was deeply moved by Henry Grunwald's candor and courage in dealing with macular degeneration, the diminishment of his sight, both emotionally and physically." --Dominick Dunne
"Henry Grunwald has written a beautiful, inspiring book; the real beauty of life is not seen with the eyes alone." --Beverly Sills
"This sensitive and so beautifully written book is indeed an eye-opener to the glories of the world around us." --Barbara Walters Expand reviews