Tuesday’s with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson

Tuesdays with Morrie

• Genre: Nonfiction; memoir
• Originally Published: 1997
• Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
• Structure/Length: 22 chapters; approx. 192 pages; approx. 3 hours, 42 minutes on audio
• Central Concern: In 1994, Mitch Albom, a successful sports journalist, learns that his former sociology professor Morrie Schwartz is dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease. Remembering a promise he made to keep in touch with his beloved teacher, Albom begins visiting Morrie over a period of 14 Tuesdays, and the two of them discuss death, aging, emotions, and the meaning of life.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Death; disease

Mitch Albom, Author

• Bio: Born in New Jersey; lives in Detroit, MI; has worked as an author, sports journalist, musician, and radio talk show host; his books have sold more than 40 million copies and have been made into movies
• Other Works: The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003); For One More Day (2006); The Time Keeper (2013); The Stranger in the Lifeboat (2021)
• Awards: The Michigan Library Association’s 2020 Michigan Author Award

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Death as a Lesson
• If the Culture Doesn’t Work, Don’t Buy It
• Giving is Living

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Gain an understanding of the genres of creative nonfiction, memoir, and biography writing as ways of telling the story of a person’s real life.