My high school English teacher introduced me to Strunk & White and had probably used the White-less original of the little book when he attended Cornell. He was an odd character, the kind of prof you see in movies. But it turns out he was a great sower of seeds. Later in life I learned to appreciate some of what he tried to pound into our heads then. Dr. Maloney talked with the greatest reverence about four things: the Kennedys, the stage actress Katharine Cornell, the time he spent at Bread Loaf, and Strunk & White.
I’m fond of the little book, and I own several different editions. But I’m not as in love as Jonathan Yardley who admitted in the Washington Post this past weekend to being a Strunkaholic, so much so that he’d like to be buried with a copy of the book when he dies.
The Boston Globe’s Jan Freeman takes a different view, believing S&W to be an aging zombie of a book and says treating [the book] as a bible of good usage is literally laughable. Dr. T.V. Maloney spins in his grave.
MAD about Words
is the brainchild (and heartchild) of
Mary Ann de Stefano
