Grand Finales: The Creative Longevity of Women Artists

by Susan Gubar

One of our most formidable literary critics explores how nine women artists flourished creatively in their final acts.


Despite the losses generally associated with aging, quite a few writers, painters, sculptors, musicians, and dancers have managed to extend and repurpose their creative energies. In Grand Finales, author Susan Gubar features women artists—George Eliot, Colette, Georgia O’Keeffe, Isak Dinesen, Marianne Moore, Louise Bourgeois, Gwendolyn Brooks, Mary Lou Williams, and Katherine Dunham—who transformed the last stage of existence into a rousing conclusion. She draws on their late lives and works to suggest that seniority can become a time of reinvention and renewal. With pizzazz, bravado, and geezer machismo, Gubar counters the discrediting of elderly women and clarifies the environments, relationships, activities, and attitudes that sponsor a creative old age.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Womens, Feminism, Biography, History

384 pages, Hardcover

Published June 10, 2025

About the author

Susan D. Gubar (born November 30, 1944) is an American author and distinguished Professor Emerita of English and Women's Studies at Indiana University. She is best known for co-authoring, with Sandra M. Gilbert, a standard feminist text, The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination (1979) and a trilogy on women's writing in the 20th century.

Reviews

[Joann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting compilation of female artists as they continue creating into old age. Since I am “of that age” I was interested in finding out how others manage this new time of their lives. One does not have to be a known artist or even an artist to give thought to how the final years we have to enjoy are going to be spent. As one person in the book said, unlike previous times in our lives, we will not remember this one. That being the case, I plan to make the best of it.

[Chrissy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the concept but not necessarily the women that were highlighted. Enjoyed Georgia O'Keeffe. Waded through George Eliot, tolerated Colette and by the time she got to Isak Dinesen I was too bored to go on.

[Samaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the intro chapter!

Tried to get through George Eliot and Colette but gave up because the writing style was so dense and there were too many (random) individuals/references for me to keep up with. Also some of the behaviors described are really troubling, e.g. Colette’s affair with her 16 year old stepson, which is presented in a way that is unclear if the author is just stating facts or if her actions are meant to be somewhat aspirational in their debauchery.

The conclusion is fine as well. Wanted to love it since the concept is so strong, but overall execution is a 2.5.

[Maryann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Goodreads and W.W. Norton & Company for an advanced reading copy of Susan Gubar's Grand Finales: The Creative Longevity of Women Artists. The intro begins, "Welcome to a fresh perspective on Little-Old-Lady Land." Being a member of this group, I appreciated the perspectives on the lives of famous women like Georgia O'Keefe, Gwendolyn Brooks, and many other creative women. Susan Gubar's writing style reminds me of a conversation with a good friend. Aging can bring challenges, but look at all the possibilities we have to make our senior years fulfilling!

[Connie]

#GoodreadsGiveaway

[Allegra Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this account of the last act of several remarkable artists who happened to be women. It's inspiring to read about artists breaking barriers in the last years of their lives. I've always loved, for example, the way Matisse found a new mode of creativity in his cutouts after he could not see to paint. That's probably why I love Gubar's account of Georgia O'Keefe's late cloud paintings. Some of Gubar's subjects are less interesting to me just because I am less interested in their work. Several of these women take much younger lovers in their old age. Their behavior is often repulsive. You could argue that they are behaving the way powerful men do and that this is an example of their liberation. I'd say that exploitation is exploitation. I will note that Gubar's writing is a delight all the way through and I love the way she weaves in her sources. She is in full control of her material.

[Gayla Bassham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the concept of this book but I took some issue with the way Gubar was categorizing her subjects -- at times it felt like she was straining to sort them into "lovers," "mavericks," and "sages" and I wish she'd just let them be their own complex messy selves. There are insights here and a promising premise but the execution was lacking.

This is really a 3 1/2 star book but I'm docking it half a star because Gubar seems far too indulgent of a 47-year-old Colette's romantic "relationship" with her 16-year-old stepson. This is not self-actualization, it's grooming.