Strunk and White Anniversary

The Elements of Style has reached its 50th birthday. Last week a friend sent an e-mail followed by one of those quotes that people sometimes use as signatures after their messages. Hers said,

“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy." -- Dorothy Parker

I smiled at the quote, having come of age with Strunk and White, and having given away dozens of copies to young writers when I was teaching school.

But now I find that to my dismay that not everybody puts the little book on quite such a high pedestal as I have been used to doing. Or perhaps that the world has moved on.

The guest bloggers in a New York Times piece marking the anniversary say that The Elements of Style takes its own rules too seriously, and foists on readers the idea that there is such a thing as the one best style.

I continue to defend the book, especially for happy young readers, who often don’t know enough writing rules to be able to break them on purpose. For such writers Strunk and White serve as a sort of home base. Comfort food.

What Dorothy Parker probably knew and these bloggers have apparently forgotten is that we all start off wanting to be told what to do. After we finish going through puberty, or worshipping our coach/scoutmaster/pastor, or skimming the Lonely Planet Guide to whatever country we’re planning to visit, then we slowly branch out on our own. If our independence leads to mixed results, we can always return to our mentors.