Life Is so Good

Life Is so Good is a 2000 memoir by American author George Dawson, co-written with the help of Richard Glaubman. Born in 1898, the grandson of slaves, Dawson lived through nearly the entire twentieth century without being able to read or write. Upon learning to read and write at the age of 98, he decided to present his view of America during the twentieth century, offering his advice for living through adversity. Dawson explains how his illiteracy felt natural and unsurprising considering his circumstances, pointing to the enduring legacy of slavery through systematic poverty and racism. The memoir received special attention due to the combination of Dawson’s age, experience, and his late acquisition of literacy, in addition to his optimistic worldview.

Dawson sets out to write his memoir to help figure out the ingredients of happiness. Though he lived for 98 years without learning to read and write, and in a profoundly racist country where he had to work harder than others to get by, he lived an exceptionally happy life. He attributes his happiness primarily to the philosophy of his father, who taught him that life is inherently valuable, dignified, and good. Dawson’s father appreciated the value of freedom, having descended from freed slaves himself. His family endured their hardships by focusing on being morally good. Born and raised in Marshall, Texas, Dawson was the oldest of seven siblings. His family was so poor that he started working at the age of four. At the age of seven, he was sent several hours away from the family home to work full-time on a farm. His work virtually never paused: he held dozens upon dozens of jobs throughout his life, most of them manual, underpaid, and without basic workplace protections. The jobs varied from sawmill worker to driver to farmhand to railroad tie-layer.

As a young man, Dawson exercised exceptional restraint in order to protect himself and those around him. His restraint reflected his deep understanding of racism and white nationalism, powerful forces that made him vulnerable and restricted his opportunities. In his late teens, he fell in love with a white girl. Though their love was reciprocal, Dawson ended the relationship to keep them both safe: mixed-race relationships were illegal, and it was not unheard of, even in “post-slavery” America, for people to commit murder over interracial love. When Dawson was 21, he said farewell to his family and got on a train to Memphis, Tennessee. Though he was illiterate with respect to the written word, he was highly socially literate and economically resourceful. He articulates his keen observations of the world around him, touching on topics from the desegregation of baseball to World War I to the advent of the car and airplane. Dawson was married twice but tragically lost both wives to disease. The father of seven children, he made ends meet, sometimes as a single parent. His children all grew up to succeed in business, extolling the virtues they inherited from their father, and through him, their grandparents and great-grandparents.



When Dawson was 98, decades after his official retirement, he was finally presented with the opportunity to learn to read and write. A teacher in his area approached him and offered to teach him. Ambivalent about picking up a new skill so late in life, the task seemed daunting. However, motivated by the prospect of being able to sign his name, read the Bible, and peruse the newspaper, Dawson set out to learn. Learning the alphabet quickly, he was reading and writing within months.

Dawson concludes his memoir by reiterating his life motto: Life is good, and it can only improve when one puts forward his best self and contributes to the community around him. Life Is so Good is a testament to the power of positive psychology and a vivid account of the dual struggle and joy of being black in the twentieth century.