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

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.

Mark Garvey is a twenty-year veteran of the book publishing industry, including six years at the helm of Writer’s Market and years of nonfiction acquisition and development editing. His passion for The Elements of Style is genuine, and he often urges it on the authors who work for him—usually to good effect.

 

Mark’s feature articles have appeared in a variety of national and regional consumer magazines, including The Oxford American, Writer's Digest, Walking, and Guitar Player. His feature writing for The Oxford American received an honorable mention in The Best American Travel Writing 2000 (Houghton Mifflin). Mark’s first book, Searching for Mary, was published by Dutton in 1998. His second book, Come Together: The Official John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Guide to Music and Video, was published in 2006 by Thomson. He currently works as an Executive Editor at Course Technology, a business and technology book publisher.