At 99, New Hampshire man becomes a first-time author

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

For someone else, it might have just been a moment to indulge in some nostalgia. But something clicked when John Archer, at the age of 92, came across some poems he had written in 1930. And he began to write.

"I started writing just to amuse myself. Then the verses got serious and started to run away from me," he said.

After a few years, the poems became a book and this fall, as Archer approaches his 100th birthday, "Walking Backwards Towards Old Age" will be printed by a small New Hampshire publishing house.

"I figured if the verses were to go anywhere they had to go on their own and not by my pushing them," said Archer of Concord, N.H. "They are going somewhere now and going on their own."

After working on the book for about five years, Archer self-published it. Phil Englehardt, vice president of sales and marketing at PublishingWorks in Exeter, N.H., found out about it this winter when he was talking with one of the owners of MainStreet BookEnds, a book store in Warner, N.H.

"She said, 'I know it sounds strange, but I know this guy who is going to turn 100 next year and I really want you to read his book,'" he said.

"The writing was, I thought, in a lot of ways stunning," said Englehardt. "It really is verse about aging and about his life and thoughts and God and everything else."

Englehardt said the company signed a traditional book contract with Archer -- he'll receive "above-average" royalties -- and plans to publish the 200-page book in October. The company's most popular books have sold around 20,000 copies, he said.

Englehardt said he believed Archer was America's oldest signed author.

Archer graduated from Harvard in 1930. He spent about 40 years teaching French at St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H., taking a break to serve in World War II. He and his late wife, Margaret, were married for 52 years and had four children. Two daughters are still alive, along with a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Archer said his book would make a good present for people to give to their parents, grandparents, or to older people, in general.

While he notes that his book has sold well at the Warner store, Archer said in a telephone interview he just wrote the book "to give myself something to do and leave something for my family."

"I don't like the publicity. I'm a modest person and I just want to live my own life quietly and leave the verses on their own out in the world," he said.

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