Q: Historical figures who wandered until they were far into adulthood?

[DerekG]

I realize that wandering in the wilderness at 21 is a travail hardly unique, but I can't help but feel troubled when so many peers seem to possess some semblance of initiative and all I do is read.

Can anyone name a figure of prominence who didn't get it together until they were well into adulthood (late 20's, 30's, 40's)? Mind you, this is simply intended as a picker-upper, I have no delusions of greatness or anything. For every Martin Luther King Jr., who presided over a congregation at the tender age of 24, there has to be a composite who took a bit longer to find purpose, no?

Thanks.

[SoFlaJet]

1. Jesus

was what in his 30's

[Dying Eagle]

17. Jesus?

He didn't start wandering till 30. Before that he was building chairs with pops.

[SaveElmer]

2. Grandma Moses

Didn't start painting until she was in her 70's (I think)...anyway she was old!!!

[Dookus]

3. well

George W. Bush didn't do much of anything until his 40's.

Quentin Crisp didn't do much until his 60's, when he became world-famous.

Rodney Dangerfield was 40 when he decided on a career in comedy.

[teach1st]

4. Me

I finished college and got my first long-term "straight job" at 34 after floating through a rather nomadic, hipster life and still haven't settled down completely at 50.

Oh, wait. You said "historical." I thought you meant "hysterical." Sorry.

[othermeans]

5. Albert Schweitzer didn't become a doctor until his 30's

[johnnie]

6. Siddartha Gautama

It wasn't until he was 29 that Buddha went searching for enlightenment.

[troublemaker]

7. Paul Gaugin

[Westegg]

8. Mozart didn't write his first symphony until he was six...

...and Alexander the Great didn't conquer the known world until he was 30. Hope that helps!

[Salmo Trutta]

9. Moses...wandered for 40 years....in the DESERT!!!

While being chased by angry Egyptians and eating mysterious stuff...

[jdonaldball]

10. Charles De Gaulle

was marginalized within the French Army until he was 50 (in 1940) and even then he went through years of hell until France was liberated and then reconstructed.
Ben Franklin did alright as a youth, but his career as a scientist and diplomat and publisher didn't really get going until he was over 40.
Winston Churchill had a good early career but was considered washed up at 40, and had to publish lots of small articles to survive financially. He was widely ridiculed until 1940, when he was 63.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn was in the war and then in prison until he was around 35, and then in exile as a math teacher in Kazakhstan and in a Cancer Ward, until his first major book was published when we was 42 (Ivan Denisovich in 1961). Won the Nobel Prize in 1974, still alive now.
Does that help?

[EstimatedProphet]

11. Philip K Dick

Worked in record stores until his 30's, before he really took on writing full time. Afterwards, he wrote some stunning stuff.

[Fenris]

12. This guy

[DerekG]

15. If I recall....

Bush wasn't wandering in the wilderness so much as he was wandering in snow...and I ain't talkin' about the stuff you find in winter time.

[CBHagman]

13. Harry Truman.

There's actually a book (I think it's called "Late Bloomers") containing profiles of people whose accomplishments didn't take place until they were well into adulthood, and often past 50.

Truman is a classic example. In addition, everyone wants to claim his legacy today, but his actual approval ratings at the end of his presidency were low, and there were scandals and setbacks. So much for the polls of any era!

[noonwitch]

14. Anne Rice's first two books failed

She was in her 30s when she published "Interview With The Vampire" and finally had success.

[pocket]

16. Buddha

IIRC