James Baquet

    Some of us remember author Elwyn Brooks “E. B.” White from our childhood days. After all, he wrote some of our favorite books: “Charlotte’s Web” (about a spider saving a pig from slaughter) and “Stuart Little” (about a boy who, though born to humans, is the size of, and has the appearance of, a mouse).

    Then, in college, we were told of an important book, “The Elements of Style,” commonly called “Strunk and White” after its authors, William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. It’s No. 21 on our list of “The Best Non-Fiction Books of the 20th Century.” Hang on, was this the same guy?

    Indeed it was. White was a long-time New York author who was encouraged to write children’s books. “Charlotte’s Web” was born of his interests as a “gentleman farmer.”

    But his principal career had been as a contributor to The New Yorker magazine, where he was on staff for around 60 years. He also wrote for Harper’s and several other New-York-based magazines.

    But as time passes, it is his books, and for many of us especially his collaboration with Strunk, that ensure his legacy.

    But “collaboration” may not be the best word. Strunk, an English professor at Cornell University, wrote the book in 1918 for the use of his students, and published it privately in 1919. In 1920 it was published for a wider public. Strunk further revised it in 1935.

    Then, in 1957, White — a former student of Strunk’s — rediscovered “the little book” that he had forgotten. He described it as a “43-page summation of the case for cleanliness, accuracy, and brevity in the use of English.”

    As such, it is not merely a grammar book. It emphasizes good writing practices that go beyond the use of proper verbs, etc., to what makes writing attractive.

    Strunk’s dictum is only four words: “Make every word tell.” Thus the book is filled with statements such as “Omit needless words” and “Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.”

    White took on the task of revising the book, which also gave some rules for usage, commonly misspelled words, and so on, and enlarged it from its original 43 pages to 105, ensuring his place on the shelves of modern writers.

    Vocabulary:

    Which word above means:

    1. one who provides stories to magazines and newspapers

    2. saying in few words

    3. cooperation, working together

    4. kill an animal for eating

    5. wait

    6. saying, rule

    7. review, putting together in one place

    8. most important

    9. main, first

    10. leave out