cover image Life After Harry: My Adventures in Widowhood

Life After Harry: My Adventures in Widowhood

Virginia Graham. Simon & Schuster, $17.45 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-671-63816-0

Daytime TV fans will remember Graham fondly, the talkiest of talk-show personalities on a string of shows between 1951 and 1973 (Food for Thought, etc). In 1980, her husband of 42 years died, and she suffered overwhelming grief and debilitating terror. Now 74, the ebullient author (If I Made It, So Can You) offers encouragement to elderly widows with this refreshingly funny story of how she bounced back. There are warnings against matchmaking friends who attempt to pair newly single women with dull males, and against people who prey on widows, like the medium who promised to ""connect'' a friend to her late husband. This is a hilarious but cautionary tale. In an upbeat vein, Graham describes the rewards of keeping busy, finding agreeable companions, looking for Mr. Right, shedding fears and improving one's appearance. Photos not seen by PW. First serial to Modern Maturity. (April)