The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man

David Von Drehle is an American author and journalist based in Kansas City, Missouri. Von Drehle previously worked for TIME, and currently works as a writer and editor for The Washington Post, where he writes about politics and national affairs. He is also the author of several books about American culture, politics and history, such as Among the Lowest of the Dead: The Culture of Capital Punishment, Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America’s Most Perilous Year, and Triangle: The Fire that Changed America.

Von Drehle brings his experience of reporting on American social issues to The Book of Charlie, as he traces White’s life alongside significant events and changes in 20th-century America. Von Drehle demonstrates the myriad events that he had to contend with, from the roaring ‘20s to the Depression, World War ll, and the invention of modern medicine. Von Drehle’s fascination with historical change and the individual’s experience of society come through in his rendering of White’s life across the decades.

Charlie White (1905-2014) is the subject of Von Drehle’s biography. White was raised in Kansas City where his father, formerly a pastor, worked as a life insurance salesman before his death in an elevator accident. This left an eight-year-old White as the “man of the house” (35).