{"id":4431,"date":"2012-05-09T03:00:30","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T07:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=4431"},"modified":"2012-07-13T08:12:46","modified_gmt":"2012-07-13T12:12:46","slug":"e-b-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=4431","title":{"rendered":"E. B. White"},"content":{"rendered":"
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E. B. White \/ Courtesy White Literary LLC<\/p><\/div>\n

I had to come into my office to restart the computer when our network went down. As I was waiting for it to come back online, I looked down to my right and saw my copy of The<\/em> Elements of Style<\/em> by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White.<\/p>\n

As is my habit while waiting for something to happen, I will start either reading or writing. Since the computer was engaged and my other writing instrument, my cell phone, was in the living room, I picked up The Elements of Style<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I have to admit, I have a bad habit on occasion\u2014of skipping over the introductions in textbooks or manuals. It is a practice I need to fix. Sometimes, authors or publishers tend to include some very interesting information in those introductions.<\/p>\n

You can also find fascinating material in the introductory text of many books that may spur you into further research of another intriguing aspect of your original topic. Such was the case in reading the introduction to The Elements of Style <\/em>just a moment ago.<\/p>\n

When I was at the University of Florida in the mid-1970s, Strunk and White\u2019s book was required reading for all journalism students. It was a \u201clittle\u201d book. Indeed, in reading the introduction some 40 years later, I find the original author of the book, Will Strunk, as E. B. White referred to his mentor, talked of his book and proudly called it a \u201clittle\u201d book.<\/p>\n

If you are a writer, or an aspiring writer, there is nothing \u201clittle\u201d about his book. If you want to write, and write well, you must read this book.<\/p>\n

The introduction by White begins, \u201cAt the close of the first World War, when I was a student at Cornell, I took a course called English 8. My professor was William Strunk, Jr. A textbook required for the course was a slim volume called The Elements of Style,<\/em> whose author was the professor himself.\u201d In these digital days of the Twenty-First Century, I found it interesting this very important book started life as a self-published pamphlet. It must have been a great challenge for Professor Strunk to produce enough copies for his students at the time.<\/p>\n

White goes on to explain how he passed the course and began his life after Cornell. If you are a writer and you use your research skills to find out more about the writer, E. B. White, you will discover he went on to become a very successful essayist, contributing many articles to The New Yorker. <\/em>He also wrote Charlotte\u2019s Web<\/em> and Stuart Little,<\/em> to satisfy the desires of his young nieces and nephews. Reading further into the introduction, you will read how White explains, in 1957, the Macmillan Company commissioned him to revise his old professor\u2019s \u201clittle book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Macmillan released the second edition of The Elements of Style <\/em>in 1959. The book would be republished in 1972, 1979, at the end of the century, and the last edition hit the streets in 2005.<\/p>\n

And here is the really interesting thing: the latest edition of the book comes out\u2014today!\u00a0 Click here for your personal copy of 2012 edition of\u00a0The Elements of Style<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

-30-<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a02012 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n

Subscribe by email<\/a><\/p>\n

Note: Email subscribers, please go to <\/em>my blog<\/em><\/a> to view vids and photos<\/em><\/p>\n

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\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had to come into my office to restart the computer when our network went down. As I was waiting for it to come back online, I looked down to my right and saw my copy of The Elements of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,10,11,13],"tags":[5575,5576,5579,5570,5574,2980,5573,5577,5580,5571,5578,5288,5572,4333,4340],"class_list":["post-4431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-in-general","category-personal","category-publishing","category-reading","category-writing","tag-a-little-book","tag-aspiring-writer","tag-charlottes-web","tag-e-b-white","tag-journalism-students","tag-reading-2","tag-research","tag-self-published-pamphlets","tag-stuart-little","tag-the-elements-of-style","tag-the-new-yorker","tag-the-university-of-florida","tag-william-strunk-jr","tag-writer","tag-writing-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4431"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4556,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4431\/revisions\/4556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}