Will Strunk's Little Book, 1955-1959 Summary and Analysis

In the period of this chapter, White receives a sentimental gift from an old Cornell friend of a copy of Professor William Strunk's small textbook on English usage and style. White then writes a loving remembrance about Professor Strunk for The New Yorker. An editor at Macmillan Co. contacts White to ask if his New Yorker piece could be used as an introduction to a new edition of the Strunk book, but White ends up expanding and revising the entire text, which is published in 1959 as The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. Since then, the book has sold more than 10 million copies.

In 1956, both Whites are still at The New Yorker, Katharine because of the death of fiction editor Gus Lobrano and White as much to be...