Where to Start with William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
William Strunk Jr. (1869-1946) was a professor of English at Cornell University who wrote a slim set of writing rules for his students in 1918. E.B. White (1899-1985) was one of those students, and he went on to become one of America’s finest writers, known for his essays in The New Yorker and his beloved children’s books Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little. In 1957, Macmillan commissioned White to revise and expand Strunk’s little book for a wider audience. The result was The Elements of Style, first published in 1959. White produced further revised editions in 1972 and 1979. The fourth edition, published in 1999 with a foreword by White’s stepson Roger Angell, is the current standard. The book has sold over ten million copies and remains a fixture on the desks of writers, editors, students, and professionals worldwide. Its influence on how English is taught and written is difficult to overstate.
Start here
The Elements of Style
William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White · 105 pages · 1999 · Easy
Themes: grammar and usage, writing style, concise prose, composition principles, English language
The most famous writing guide in the English language, distilled into just over a hundred pages. This fourth edition preserves the legendary brevity and wit that have made this book a permanent fixture on writers’ desks since 1959.
Why Start Here
The Elements of Style is the only book Strunk and White produced together, and it is one of those rare works that became a genre unto itself. Strunk’s original rules were sharp, opinionated, and practical. White’s revisions and additions gave the book warmth, humor, and a voice that made readers want to follow its advice rather than merely memorize its rules.
The book is organized into sections on elementary rules of usage, principles of composition, matters of form, commonly misused words and expressions, and an approach to style. Each rule is illustrated with examples, and White’s final chapter on style is a small masterpiece of writing about writing.
What to Expect
A 105-page book you can read in under two hours. The rules are clear, the examples are memorable, and the voice is unlike anything else in the reference genre. This is not a comprehensive grammar handbook. It is an opinionated, selective guide to the principles that matter most, delivered with economy and grace.