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

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.