John Basinger, 76, Memorizes 'Paradise Lost'

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - John Basinger, a 76-year-old Middletown, Conn., man, has managed to memorize the epic poem "Paradise Lost" – and it only took him eight years.

The 17th-century poem by John Milton is 60,000 words, or about equal to a 350-page novel. To hear Basinger recite it would take three, eight-hour days, reported The Hartford Courant . Basinger started memorizing the 12-book poem in 1993.

Basinger has staged his readings, holding Paradise Lost Performances nationwide, including the 1997 National Slam Poetry Festival, Poetry Alive in Asheville, N.C., and the Connecticut Storytelling Festival.

The recent issue of the journal Memory has published a study of Basinger's feat: "Memorizing Milton's Paradise Lost: A Study of a Septuagenarian Exceptional Memorizer."

The Hartford Courant reported the study was lead by John Seamon, a professor in Wesleyan University's psychology department. After seeing Basinger's performance he invited him to be tested under clinical conditions.

Mind Hacks reported that researchers tested Basinger at age 74. They discovered if they pick any part of the 10,565-line poem he could remember the next 10 lines. The website states he started to memorize it to have some mental activity to accompany his workouts at the gym.

"As I finished each book, I began to perform it and keep it alive in repertory while committing the next one to memory," Basinger recounts in the Memory article. "The goal eventually became not just a series of performances, but to do all twelve books on the same occasion."

He did that in 2001. Many of his performances since have only consisted on reciting some of the books because of how long it takes to recite them all.

According to the Paradise Lost Performances website, Basinger is professor emeritus of theater and sign language at Three Rivers Community College. He performed with the National Theatre of the Deaf and on Broadway.