Stylized: A Slightly Obsessive History of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style

by Mark Garvey

A LIVELY, WITTY, AND PASSIONATE
CELEBRATION OF THE "LITTLE BOOK"
THAT HAS DONE MORE TO SHAPE WRITING
IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THAN
ANY OTHER GUIDE IN MODERN TIMES
Since 1959, The Elements of Style has been required reading for aspiring writers, English majors, and anyone with a love of language. Strunk and White's guidelines for good grammar and style have been discussed, debated, and occasionally even debunked...but they cannot be dismissed. A Strunk and White devotee since high school, writer and editor Mark Garvey has long appreciated Elements for its character, its attitude, and its bracing good sense. The book is not only a helpful guide to creating better prose, it is also a compelling reminder of the virtues of clarity, simplicity, and truth in writing -- and an inspiring celebration of the individual voice. To tell the story of this timeless, beloved, sometimes controversial book, and the men behind it, Garvey digs deep into the Cornell University archives and the personal letters of E. B. White and his professor William Strunk Jr. Stylized is a lovingly crafted history that explores Elements' staying power and takes us from the hallowed halls of academia to the bustling offices of The New Yorker magazine to the dazzling days of old Hollywood -- and into the hearts and minds of some of the most respected writers working today.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Education, Language, Journalism

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Strunkandwhite” is often spoken quickly as if everyone in earshot knows what it refers to. It is also spoken more slowly and reverently by those who prize it as an elegant and utilitarian guide to good writing. Along those lines, occasionally it will be spoken mantra-like as if just mentioning it will make any nearby prose better.

In all these cases the speaker is referring to a book which was first published 95 years ago, but in its more recognizable form only 54 years ago. I am speaking of course of “The Elements of Style”: the book that may or may not have been part of your English classes in high school or college. This isn’t a review of that classic, instead I am writing about Stylized: A Slightly Obsessive History of Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style.

While I often attempt to avoid even the barest whiff of a spoiler, for this book I am going to ignore my normal restrictions. I do not think I will spoil the “mystery” or pleasure for another reader.

In this book one does not learn about specific rules (or recommendations) of good English usage and punctuation. All such information is conveyed by the “source book”. Instead, one learns about the men and women that contributed to this hoary, but useful writers’ tool. There are brief discussions about how some rules were added, removed, or modified, but the meat of the rules is left out. And even with these omissions, this little volume weighs in twice the length of its inspiration.

The primary authors of the “source” are William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. Strunk was a gifted professor who taught at Cornell and White was one of his students who went one to become a respected author and essayist. Along with these two were several other influencers and aides. This combination of talent and skill created the little book that has sold well over 10 million copies.

I remember “The Elements of Style” and perhaps even own a copy (if so, I have not seen it in decades.) Although I often have to write lengthy documents, I’m sure that my own “voice” could be better from paying more attention to its exhortations. Mr. Garvey is most certainly a fan and a believer, but his religion is based on that happy blending of the Strunk original (he died before the first “Strunk & White” edition) and the practical experiences of the essayist, White. And, for better or worse, that is the book that everyone living knows and uses.

In turn, he has written this book in homage to both the book and its creators. His book is probably never going to sell as widely as the “source”, but it is an enjoyable read for those who like history and the English language. You won’t really learn to become a better writer from this book, but you will learn about other people who say they have because of the original. For language fans, it’s probably closer to a four, but for the average reader this is probably nothing greater than a three. I’m giving it the waffler’s three-and-one-half (3.5) stars.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’ve read anything written by a recent high school or college graduate, perhaps you’ll understand why many think the current (descriptive) approach to teaching writing is an absolute failure. While still popular today, The Elements of Style harks back to an earlier time, when the prescriptive approach was still in fashion and writing advice was not yet hopelessly uncertain.

In the July 27, 1957 issue of The New Yorker, E. B. White published a glowing reminiscence of the compact but instructive manual he’d first encountered at Cornell, once a required text for Prof. William Strunk’s “English Usage and Style” course. (The men met in 1919, and they maintained a lively correspondence until Strunk’s death in 1946.) By 1959, after being approached by several publishers, White produced a heavily updated and revised version of Strunk’s “little book”. The first edition of The Elements of Style received overwhelmingly positive critical attention, and the book has gone on to become one of the most popular reference books of all time, with four editions (in 1959, 1972, 1979, 1999), numerous reprintings, and selling over 10 million copies.

In Stylized, Mark Garvey provides abbreviated biographies of Strunk and White, and he chronicles the evolution of the book and the significant reworking of the text by White, including the onerous process of revising and updating. Stylized is filled with excerpts from White’s letters, often witty exchanges between White and his fans and critics, and it made me appreciate just how elegant and charismatic White was on the page. Garvey also discusses efforts to modernize Elements of Style—e.g. the inclusion of more female writers, excising of sexist details—and White’s agreement, sometimes grudging, to alter the text to appease critics.

Stylized contains numerous author interviews, and while most limit their commentary to Strunk & White, a few go very far afield. Adam Gopnick, the author that commands the highest page count, seems to think that Elements has very little relevance today, and instead he discusses at length his own approach to writing. Gopnick is a fine writer; I’ve enjoyed many of his articles, but after finishing Stylized, I’ve realized just what an excellent editing staff they have at The New Yorker.

We’re certainly not the mainstream, but there are a number of us patiently waiting for the changing of the tide and a return to the principles of prescriptive writing. Until then, I suppose, we’ll have to content ourselves with reading The New Yorker—E. B. White’s legacy—and occasionally thumbing through a dog-eared copy of The Elements of Style.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pleasant little book that my son passed on to me. It made me want to immediately re-read my own copy of the Elements of Style! It also increased my admiration of E.B. White. What a charming man.

[Mythili · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stylized is a fan’s meticulously researched, big-hearted tribute to a sturdy old book—one also “thin as a buttermilk pancake” but for generations of readers and writers, so much more substantive. That book is Elements of Style, the student text Cornell professor William Strunk Jr. assembled in the early 20th century for use in his college writing courses. Elements of Style’s ascent to immortality begins when young Elwyn White – the gifted writer later famously known as E. B. White – enrolls in Strunk’s writing course in 1919. Though the book seems to make no palpable impression on White at the time, many years later, when a friend sends him a worn copy of Elements of Style “filched from the library," the writer (by then a New Yorker staffer of considerable reknown) is moved and charmed. In a nostalgic essay 1957 in The New Yorker, White reminisces on the fresh lessons of the “squeaky voice from the past” on writing’s simple fundamentals. When White’s essay catches the eye of textbook editor Jack Case of MacMillian publishing, the two immediately begin work on the Elements’ rerelease. "We don't embark on many college book projects in a mood in which enthusiasm is a principal ingredient, and a good thing, too!” Case writes to White, “But we think our instinct is right on this one." Stylized depicts Elements’ fascinating rebirth and new life through many of the letters exchanged by editor and writer, and – after it’s publication – writer and readers, as White tries to polish and defend his professor’s stern notional aphorisms (“Omit needless words”!) while refashioning the book’s broader themes to suit the times. Garvey provides considerable context for the tale of Element’s reincarnation, outlining both Strunk and White’s careers at length, and ultimately presenting Strunk as the “master boat builder” and White as the “pilot” of a vessel that would navigate and provoke the instruction of clear, expository writing for decades to come. Spicing his homage with the thoughts of contemporary writers (for example, “what I love about the book is that it’s kind of an act of affection toward a former professor,” current New Yorker writer Nicholas Baker mulls), Garvey shapes an ebullient tribute to a book that has deeply influenced writers of all stripes for nearly a century.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obsessive history, yes. It does seem to go on for a bit. But Garvey also captures the spirit and incitement of reading The Elements of Style. The Elements is a call to arms for writers, and Garvey does a good job of personalizing the creation and impact of the original.

In his own regard, some of Garvey's explorations of ideas refreshed me. In my own Master’s thesis, I had a bit of a rant about "theory" infecting academic thinking. Garvey has a lovely passage exposing the same excessive theorizing, pages 113-120. It's a powerful passage detailing the "whirlwind of ‘theory’" with it's "deep suspicion of claims of knowledge and distrust in the existence of truth and any of it's associated implications about our moral nature. Claims about meaning and truth, theory tells us, are fictions or, at best, locally contingent beliefs created within specific contexts of gender, race, cultural and economic status, et cetera. Since the varieties of context and contingency are endless, the idea that objective truth can be arrived at, much less accurately described and communicated by a writer to a reader, is an illusion, and truth itself a mirage as unachievable as the horizon."

The whirlwind of theory is the opposite of Strunk & White. Strunk & White repeatedly proclaim that truth exists and can be found, and that clarity, in both thought and writing, is the lens.

As Garvey describes it: "It's not the arrogance of claiming that you have got your arms around the totality of truth, that you have found the answer; it's rather the simple confidence that, through clear observation and thinking, you can at least touch some aspects of truth and, with a little diligence and care, bring facets of reality home intact for your readers."

Garvey's Stylized is a treat and an inspiration for re-reading The Elements. When I do pick up The Elements again, I know it will inspire me anew to bring my facets of reality into the light. What a blessing that little book is! Garvey gets my esteem for making The Elements human.

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/19/2013: A lovely, thorough, and concise history of and paean to the slight but weighty volume that, like the Eveready Bunny, just keeps going. Garvey has taken on an interesting and difficult task with this history of TEOS: to write about writers who write about good writing--how scary is that? And yet he does it happily. Both self-effacing and proud of his love of what he's doing ("Slightly Obsessive" is both tongue-in-cheek and serious); both in awe of the Masters and working to bring them down to earth; both specific in his goal and far-reaching in his breadth of research and inclusion (wait, does far-reaching have a hyphen?), Garvey balances many objectives, and succeeds admirably (wait, don't use adverbs!) in attaining them.

If you've gotten this far, you understand that I'm a power word/writing nerd. Which is not to say a writer--though I dream of it, the fact that I haven't done it means it probably ain't gonna happen--but someone who glories in this stuff. The story of how TEOS came to exist, the relationship between William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, the book's editing and publishing history (are you asleep yet?) is the history I love most to read. Interlarded with commentary from working writers, many at The New Yorker, and letters to and from White and Strunk, the book dances merrily along. And the advice? Garvey brings it home.

"Omit needless words." (Yikes.) What more can I say?

Well, there is more. But why paraphrase when the original is so good? Here's the last sentence (don't worry, no need for a spoiler alert!):

The Elements of Style invites us to remember that we can trust in our ability to think things through and set our thoughts down straight and clear; that with a little effort we can hope to sight a line of order in the chaos; that things will improve as we simplify our purposes and speak our minds; and that we must believe, as E.B. White put it, "in the truth and worth of the scrawl."

Stylized may not prove to be a classic, but it's a great read for grammar and writing wonks, and it (not surprisingly?) made me go find a copy of TEOS to peruse. Which is always a good idea.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of dull, even to a former copy editor. There's some charming stuff about Strunk and White and their friendship. I didn't know that they didn't actually write the book together. Strunk was White's English prof at Cornell in the 30's. He wrote a grammar guide for his students, and several decades later, after Strunk had died, White decided to rework it, turning it into the famed book. But Garvey doesn't have enough of a story to tell to fill even a slight book like this, so he pads it out with letters and interviews and testimonials. It makes for a jumbled and cluttered read without much narrative drive.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great concept, mediocre execution. If anything, this book ably demonstrates a rule missing from Strunk and White’s: Similar to fashion, too many accessories ruin a good thing. Mr. Garvey tries to do too many things in 200 pages – Biographies! Literary critique! Commentary! – making it hard to sit down and simply read. It’s an inadvertent rendering of the Vegas strip and all its distractions in book form, given all of the boxes and anecdotes breaking up the flow of the narrative. The story is interesting enough that with a better approach to the material, this book could have been an example of a small-subject book extending its reach beyond a niche audience. Quasi-recommended.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deep dive into "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White and a fun book for an English grammar and writing geek like me. Part history of the writing and development of "Elements," part biography of its co-authors, and part commentary by the author and by other writers including Adam Gopnik, Dave Barry and Ian Frazier, "Stylized" is a treat made even more enjoyable by the inclusion of many of EB White's letters to his fans and occasionally detractors--all of them charming. Have your own copy of "Elements" on hand while reading (and if you've gotten this far in this review, you know you have one!); you're going to want to read it again upon finishing this.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

So fun. I know technical writing books aren't really everyone's thing, but if you've ever benefited from The Elements of Style, you'll enjoy this book. I came away with, not only a greater understanding of Strunk and White's work, but a better appreciation for the diminutive volume. Plus, Garvey loves his subject. and it is really hard not to like something when the person telling you about it loves it so much.

[Kenny Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is definitely worth the read, especially for anyone that cares about style. The main problem is that there wasn't enough material for a book-length work. While some wonderful passages are scattered throughout the text, they are nestled between mundane Strunk and White stories, which the author then tries to connect back to the Elements of Style in a strained way. He also includes some interviews with authors about various stylistic issues, and while they are often compelling in certain ways, I was particularly bothered by the "truth" section, which encourages older writers to discuss difficult philosophical issues that they barely grasp (like, for example, the fellow who claims postmodernism is just about "believing your own truth," which is so ridiculous that it makes the person look foolish). The sections that I enjoyed the most were those that commented about the student-teacher relationship between Strunk and White, particularly the closing one that connected together their deaths.

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Those who appreciate the “little book” will be informed and amused by the helpful information Garvey provides about Strunk and White’s intertwined lives, the book’s editing process as overseen by Macmillan’s Jack Case, and the interspersed observations of a number of notable writers corralled by Garvey to comment on the text. Garvey’s prose is good enough, although I suppose almost every reader will second-guess aspects of his style. That comes with the territory if your subject is Strunk & White. Garvey does not organize the book chronologically, or even particularly logically, and that decision results in a few repetitions. There are some needless words not omitted and a few cases of journalistic overreach, as in describing the third edition as “weighing in at eighty-five pages.” The book has no citations and, worse, no index. It’s still fun to read.

[Anne-Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a cozy, niche book to disappear into for a few hours. This was my late grandfather’s book; he loved Strunk and White, owned several editions, and bequeathed a few of them on to me on more than one occasion. So I was hardly surprised to see that he also owned a “book about the book.”

I wish I’d known E.B. White; he seems so thoughtful and kind and humorous on the page! And Strunk seems like one of those old-timey absentminded professors who scarcely exist anymore.

An added bonus of reading this is that I could see all of my grandfather’s underlinings and annotations. A bit like reading it together with him.

[Caleb Kleveter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly great history it is, but more then that, it is a biography. The birth and growth of The Elements of Style.

Mr Garvey, along with the authors he interviews, do a wonderful job explaining how The Elements was intended to be used. Not as a set it binding rules, but a guide to be thrown out there window as soon as it gets in you hair.

[Susan Specter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend found this at a Friends of the Library book sale and thought of me. What a surprise! I loved this book. Such interesting history of Strunk, White, The Elements of Style, The New Yorker, and more. I'm not sure I've ever actually read The Elements of Style, but now I want to jump right on it!

[nam · Rating 3 out of 5]

definitely obsessive but i did choose to read it so that's on me

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

You’ve got to be quite the writing nerd to actually enjoy this sort of thing . . . and yet here we are. It’s a fun and quirky little book—part biography (of William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White), part history of the development and publication of “The Elements of Style,” and part compendium on good writing. It’s a little over the top at times (after all, this is just a usage and style guide we’re talking about, not the apogee of humanity’s artistic journey), but there is something charming and infectious in the author’s (and his interviewees’) genuine affection for the subject at hand.

[Charles Eliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll tell you what I thought about "Stylized" in a moment, but before I do I need to tell you why I read it in the first place.

I'm in the middle of slogging my way through Stephen Jay Gould's magnum opus, "The Structure of Evolutionary Theory". For twenty years I followed with delight Gould's essays and books as they were published. I even read some of his technical publications, despite knowing next to nothing about palaeontology or evolutionary theory. I learned a lot from reading Gould's many books and essays. I liked the way he wrote about science, I liked that he was equal parts scientist and historian, and I admired his curiosity and range.

Then in 2002 he published "The Structure of Evolutionary Theory", a huge - 1500 pages - book, and died soon after. I bought the book, of course, but it rested on my library shelves unread until now. In the intervening years something has changed in me. I still like all the things I used to like about Gould's work, but now I see more clearly that he had an agenda. A few key themes come up again and again, and after all this time I've pretty much heard them all before. As I pay my final respects to the man by reading the book he intended would cap his career, I'm struck less by the content, which feels like an extended recap of everything that came before, than by the writing. The wordy, over-blown, redundant, arrogant, and occasionally beautiful writing.

Gould was phenomenally articulate and intelligent, and he wrote in the Victorian style of long, flowing, elegant sentences that can bleed on to paragraph length. He didn't write, as so many academics do, in twisted and arcane sentences that defy understanding. Even so, I can't say he was a good writer. Good writing should not be like playing Clue. Not for me the long and elegant and perfectly logical argument that ineluctably reveals the hidden secret of the murder. Give me "the butler, in the library, with the candlestick".

In other words, I want to throw Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style" at Professor Gould's incorporeal presence, and let the book flutter open to Strunk's central credo: omit unnecessary words.

"The Structure of Evolutionary Theory" has been such hard going I've taken to pausing between chapters to read other books. (Some might see this as infidelity; I think of it as lemon sorbet between the rich courses of an impossibly long meal.) I had just finished Chapter 2 when I noticed "Stylized: A Slightly Obsessive History of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style" on the shelves. Maybe I bought it on a whim when it came out five year ago. Now I'm glad I didn't read it right away, because it was the perfect diversion at exactly the right moment.

"Stylized" is a wonderful book about writing, writers, and what it takes to write well. It doesn't matter whether you worship at the altar of Strunk & White's "Elements of Style" or think it the worst kind of prescriptive patriarchal rubbish: "Stylized" is enjoyable, informative, and even inspiring. It's the story of two men who loved writing, one a professor and the other a writer (who was at one point a student of the professor's).

[Richard Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

For five decades, Strunk & White's small book has been the elephant in the room for writers. Over these many years, their guidelines for good grammar have been widely and hotly debated...but they cannot be dismissed.

Much has been written about E.B. White, his contribution to American letters, and his long tenure at The New Yorker. But the joy of discovery in this book, in addition to Mark Garvey’s nuanced prose, was to learn that William Strunk Jr., White’s college professor at Cornell and the original/solo author of the “first edition” grew up in right here in Cin City.

For anyone who endured semesters of red ink tattooing our compositions with cryptic notes like Rule #2 or other Elements shorthand (and depending upon how sorry you were feeling for yourself at the time, feel free to add curt, cutting and/or cruel), this half-century anniversary is a big deal-e-o. As The Elements of Style is an essential for everyone in the book biz, to discover that the numero uno guy hailed from Cincinnati, and fifty years later, a local author picked up this thread and wove a rich history of the book and the two gentlemen that created it, that’s aces. Then to have this wonderful book reviewed in the New York Times Book Review – four aces. As a fitting footnote to this local and literary history, Mark now live less than three miles from Strunk’s childhood home; for book folk, that’s like winning the lottery.

Mark is a sweet, smart guy…as was E. B. White, and based upon what I learned in Stylized¸ so too was William Strunk. So to stay humble and make sure we don’t get a full snoot of ourselves, it’s best to move on with Dorothy Parker’s quote: "If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy."

[Trena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to start this review by confessing that I am not at all familiar with the source material. I know my sister had a copy when she was in junior high/early high school, but it was never assigned by any of my teachers and I never happened to run across it otherwise. I probably should have checked out Strunk & White at the same time--obviously, context is always nice. However, I got enough of the substance (plain, clear writing, it appears) to understand the hagiography.

Garvey was obviously much influenced by The Elements of Style, as the book is deliberately physically small and not too long. The writing is clear and simple. The story of the book is an interesting one: Will Strunk was a professor of E.B. White's at Cornell, and had written his little self-published pamphlet for his students. Generations of students lived and died by the book while in Strunk's class. After Strunk's death, White rediscovered the book and wrote a piece about it in The New Yorker, and more than a decade after Strunk's death, McMillan publishing engaged him to do a rewrite. The book has been a seminal style manual since.

The book covers Strunk's and White's biographies, their friendship, and the Elements of Style itself. It is peppered with White's correspondence with readers and writers' reminiscences. A fun read.

[The American Conservative]

'Garvey is at his best in those passages where he attempts to take the heft of Strunk’s preference for the spare. The Elements of Style, he says, “embodies a worldview.” He explains: "It is a book of promises—a promise that creative freedom is enabled, not hindered, by putting your faith in a few helpful rules; the promise that careful, clear thinking and writing can occasionally touch truth; the promise of depth in simplicity and beauty in plainness; and the promise that by turning away from artifice and ornamentation you will find your true voice."

Garvey is surely right to locate the enduring appeal of The Elements of Style in these largely unspoken promises. He is also right to pick out “Omit needless words” as the pivot of the Strunkian universe. That three-word command, he says, “continues to ring like a Lao Tzu aphorism at the book’s center.”'

Read the full review, "What are Words Worth?" on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...

[Jerry Cheung · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit I've never read The Elements of Style cover to cover. It was one of the required books for my undergraduate freshman English class, but I didn't open it until after I graduated college. Since then, I've only flipped through a few pages in passing, but never for reference. It sits on my bookshelf, sandwiched between a programming book and a cookbook, collecting dust. I only remembered it after I walked by this bright yellow book by Mark Garvey at the local library. Stylized is a collection of interviews and observations from established writers about how Elements affected their writing. Part biography, part tribute, part analysis, Garvey does a great job covering how the book came to exist, and its impact on writers and even non-writers. It's given me a reason to dust off my copy. I'm excited to read the final chapter on style by E.B. White.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book describes the writing of Strunk and White's Elements of Style. EB White was a student if William Strunk will at Cornell. White took professor Strunk's writing class, where they utilized the precursor Professor Strunk's four volume book Elements of Style. EB white achieved literary fame as an editor at New Yorker Magazine and an accomplished essayists, as well as being "the guy who wrote Charlotte's Web." Me. Garvey 's moving tribute to Strunk and White captured the literary lives of these two men, men of culture and education, steeped in literature and the classics, things which are permanent and stand in contrast to what passes as intelligentsia in this, the so called post modern era. This is a book about quality, a book about refinement in an age which lacks those qualities.

[Marsena Adams-Dufresne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful surprise left on my bedside table during a trip to my childhood home. This little book reminds me why I love the other "little book" (Elements of Style by Strunk and White), and how words so thrill me that a good book on grammar can make me laugh out loud. From Stylized: "Elements is a very good guide to writing the kind of prose I like to read: prose that is supple enough to convey complex ideas clearly; that shuns gratuitous decoration while welcoming insight and wit; that's as lean, sturdy, and fit for its purpose as a pump handle." Hear hear. Throughout the book are sprinkled excerpts from E.B. White's letters, which charmed and entertained me so much that I need to make a trip to B&N so I can read more.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were parts of this book I really liked, particularly the interviews with well-known writers. The late Frank McCourt's interjections are always worth reading. The details about the lives of William Strunk and EB White were appreciated, since I knew very little about them. As was discussion of how the book has changed over the years. (The memorable bit about Chloe, the girl who smells nice being changed to Chloe, the baby who smells nice is telling.) But overall, there was too much focus on the abstract and not the concrete. Too many of these words were needless. I don't know if Strunk and White would approve.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the Elements of Style because they have managed to bring a collection of thorny problems under control so that when I'm writing something I don't have to agonize over whether to put in a comma or not. Reading about the men who wrote this, to me, masterpiece, was very interesting and heartwarming. I'm delighted that Mark Garvey took the time and effort to dig into the story of this little "treasure".

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected to like this more. The story behind the creation of "The Elements of Style" is interesting for any fan of the work. Worth the read, perhaps. The author's intent to gather reactions from current authors to "The Elements of Style" is a good idea, too, but the same authors are repeated throughout the work, and they don't seem to say much of interest.

[Phoebe]

A specialized group will be intrigued by this exceptionally well written book. Some of it I skipped, but most of it is highly readable. There were some interesting tidbits about E.B. White that literature lovers will cotton to. Also, anyone who is addicted to the New Yorker magazine will enjoy the details of its origination. A very good book. (Sorry, Strunk and White, for using "very.")

[Kathleen Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being one of "those people", the kind of people who cringe when people say, "less books" instead of "fewer books", this book was just my cup of tea. It is a history - a biography of the Elements of Style, a book close to every English and History Major's heart.
I enjoyed it very much, and read parts of it to my long-suffering husband. My children, both grammar-geeks, are reading it now.

[Gavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this tale of how "Strunk & White" became part of the life of writers. Will Strunk and E. B. White's story and the development of the proper way to write clearly and concisely is one that should be read immediately after this history's subject in order to appreciate the why and the why not.