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The Elements of Style: 50th Anniversary Edition [Hardcover]

William Strunk (Author), E. B. White (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)


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Book Description

October 25, 2008 0205632645 978-0205632640 1

You know the authors’ names. You recognize the title. You've probably used this book yourself. And now The Elements of Style–the most widely read and employed English style manual–is available in a specially bound 50th Anniversary Edition that offers the title's vast audience an opportunity to own a more durable and elegantly bound edition of this time-tested classic.

Offering the same content as the Fourth Edition, revised in 1999, the new casebound 50th Anniversary Edition includes a brief overview of the book's illustrious history. Used extensively by individual writers as well as high school and college students of writing, it has conveyed the principles of English style to millions of readers. This new deluxe edition makes the perfect gift for writers of any age and ability level.

 

Fifty Years of Acclaim for The Elements of Style:

                                                                                                                                                                               

“I first read Elements of Style during the summer before I went off to Exeter, and I still direct my students at Harvard to their definition about the difference between 'that' and 'which.'  It is the Bible for good, clear writing.” -- Henry Louis Gates Jr.

 

“For writers of all kinds and sizes the world begins and ends with Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. Only something to actually write about trumps the list of what is required to put words together in some kind of coherent way. I treasure its presence in my life and salute its fifty years of glory and accomplishment.” -- Jim Lehrer

 

The Elements of Style remains an unwavering beacon of light in these grammatically troubled times.  I would be lost without it.”-- Ann Patchett

 

"To the extent I know how to write clearly at all, I probably taught myself while I was teaching others -- seventh graders, in Flint, Michigan, in 1967.  I taught them with a copy of Strunk & White lying in full view on my desk, sort of in the way the Gideons leave Bibles in cheap hotel rooms, as a way of saying to the hapless inhabitant: ‘In case your reckless ways should strand you here, there's help.’  S&W doesn't really teach you how to write, it just tantalizingly reminds you that there's an orderly way to go about it, that clarity's ever your ideal, but -- really -- it's all going to be up to you."-- Richard Ford

 

 

The Elements of Style never seems to go out of date. Its counsel is sound and funny, wise and unpretentious. And while its precepts are a foundation of direct communication, Strunk and White do not insist on a way of writing beyond clear expression. The rest is up to the imagination, the intelligence within.”-- David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker

 

 “It’s the toughness–the irreverence and implicit laughter–that attracted me to the little book when I was seventeen. I fell in love with Strunk & White’s loathing for cant and bloviation, the ruthless cutting of crap, jargon, and extra words. For me, that skeptical directness included a tacit permission by The Elements of Style to break its rules on occasion: an alloy of generosity in the blade, a grace I still admire and still learn from.”-- Robert Pinsky

 

“In the quest for clarity, one can have no better guides than Strunk and White. For me, their book has been invaluable and remains essential.”-- Dan Rather

 

"Eschew surplusage! A perfect book."--Jonathan Lethem

 

"Not until I started teaching writing and I reread The Elements of Style did I realize that most everything I would be teaching young writers, and everything I would be learning myself as a writer, was contained between the covers of this slim, elegant, wise little book."-- Julia Alvarez

 

“Strunk and White seared their way into my brain long ago, and I benefit from them daily.”-- Steven J. Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics

 

“Since high school, I have kept a copy of this book handy. That should be unnecessary. I should, by now, have fully internalized The Elements of Style. But sometimes I get entangled in a paragraph that refuses to be ‘clear, brief, bold.’ I dip back into The Elements of Style and am refreshed. After Scott Simon interviewed me on NPR about whether the word ‘e-mail’ needs a hyphen (yes, it does), some listeners, including friends of mine, wondered why I had answered in the affirmative when asked, in passing, ‘Are you a drunken white man?’ Those listeners misheard. ‘Strunk and White man’ was what Scott said.”-- Roy Blount Jr.

 

“Strunk & White--writing's good-natured law firm--still contains enough sparkling good sense to clean up the whole bloviating blogosphere."-- Thomas Mallon

 

 “I used Strunk -- that’s what we called it, Strunk -- as a student at Berkeley fifty years ago.  I didn't know that it was new, and that we were the first generation to be educated in The Elements of Style.  I got a firm foundation in the English language, learned to write basically, and could depict the realistic world.  Then I was able to become an impressionist and expressionist.” -- Maxine Hong Kingston

 

 “Strunk and White's gigantic little book must be the most readable advice on writing ever written.  Side by side with Roget, Shakespeare, the Bible, and a dictionary, it's an essential for every writer's shelf.”-- X.J. Kennedy...



Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

You know the authors’ names. You recognize the title. You've probably used this book yourself. And now The Elements of Style—the most widely read and employed English style manual—is available in a specially bound 50th Anniversary Edition that offers the title's vast audience an opportunity to own a more durable and elegantly bound edition of this time-tested classic.

Offering the same content as the Fourth Edition, revised in 1999, the new casebound 50th Anniversary Edition includes a brief overview of the book's illustrious history. Used extensively by individual writers as well as high school and college students of writing, it has conveyed the principles of English style to millions of readers. This new deluxe edition makes the perfect gift for writers of any age and ability level.

 

 

Fifty Years of Acclaim for The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

                                                                                                                                                                               

“I first read Elements of Style during the summer before I went off to Exeter, and I still direct my students at Harvard to their definition about the difference between 'that' and 'which.'  It is the Bible for good, clear writing.”

                        -- Henry Louis Gates Jr.

 

“For writers of all kinds and sizes the world begins and ends with Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. Only something to actually write about trumps the list of what is required to put words together in some kind of coherent way. I treasure its presence in my life and salute its fifty years of glory and accomplishment.”

                        -- Jim Lehrer

 

The Elements of Style remains an unwavering beacon of light in these grammatically troubled times.  I would be lost without it.”

                        -- Ann Patchett

 

"To the extent I know how to write clearly at all, I probably taught myself while I was teaching others -- seventh graders, in Flint, Michigan, in 1967.  I taught them with a copy of Strunk & White lying in full view on my desk, sort of in the way the Gideons leave Bibles in cheap hotel rooms, as a way of saying to the hapless inhabitant: ‘In case your reckless ways should strand you here, there's help.’  S&W doesn't really teach you how to write, it just tantalizingly reminds you that there's an orderly way to go about it, that clarity's ever your ideal, but -- really -- it's all going to be up to you."

                        -- Richard Ford

 

 

The Elements of Style never seems to go out of date. Its counsel is sound and funny, wise and unpretentious. And while its precepts are a foundation of direct communication, Strunk and White do not insist on a way of writing beyond clear expression. The rest is up to the imagination, the intelligence within.”

                        -- David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker

 

 “It’s the toughness—the irreverence and implicit laughter—that attracted me to the little book when I was seventeen. I fell in love with Strunk & White’s loathing for cant and bloviation, the ruthless cutting of crap, jargon, and extra words. For me, that skeptical directness included a tacit permission by The Elements of Style to break its rules on occasion: an alloy of generosity in the blade, a grace I still admire and still learn from.”

                        -- Robert Pinsky

 

“In the quest for clarity, one can have no better guides than Strunk and White. For me, their book has been invaluable and remains essential.”

                        -- Dan Rather

 

"Eschew surplusage! A perfect book."

                        --Jonathan Lethem

 

"Not until I started teaching writing and I reread The Elements of Style did I realize that

most everything I would be teaching young writers, and everything I would be learning myself as a writer, was contained between the covers of this slim, elegant, wise little book."

                        -- Julia Alvarez

 

 “Strunk and White seared their way into my brain long ago, and I benefit from them daily.”

                        -- Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics

 

“Since high school, I have kept a copy of this book handy. That should be unnecessary. I should, by now, have fully internalized The Elements of Style. But sometimes I get entangled in a paragraph that refuses to be ‘clear, brief, bold.’ I dip back into The Elements of Style and am refreshed.

     After Scott Simon interviewed me on NPR about whether the word ‘e-mail’ needs a hyphen (yes, it does), some listeners, including friends of mine, wondered why I had answered in the affirmative when asked, in passing, ‘Are you a drunken white man?’ Those listeners misheard. ‘Strunk and White man’ was what Scott said.”

                        -- Roy Blount Jr.

 

“Strunk & White--writing's good-natured law firm--still contains enough sparkling good sense to clean up the whole bloviating blogosphere."

                  -- Thomas Mallon

 

 “I used Strunk -- that’s what we called it, Strunk -- as a student at Berkeley fifty years ago.  I didn't know that it was new, and that we were the first generation to be educated in The Elements of Style.  I got a firm foundation in the English language, learned to write basically, and could depict the realistic world.  Then I was able to become an impressionist and expressionist.” 

                  -- Maxine Hong Kingston

 

 “Strunk and White's gigantic little book must be the most readable advice on writing ever written.  Side by side with Roget, Shakespeare, the Bible, and a dictionary, it's an essential for every writer's shelf.”

                        -- X.J. Kenned...

About the Author

William Strunk, Jr. was a Professor of English at Cornell University and first published a private editon of his "little book"  in 1919 for his own writing students. The book was published in 1935 by Oliver Strunk.

E. B. White was a student in Professor Strunk's class at Cornell, and used the small volume himself, during which time he became respectful and appreciative of its pithy and indispensable writing advice.  Commissioned by Macmillan to revise the book, White edited and created new material for the 1959 and 1972 editions of The Elements of Style.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 128 pages
  • Publisher: Longman; 1 edition (October 25, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0205632645
  • ISBN-13: 978-0205632640
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
79 of 85 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
First of all, I want to make it clear that I love this book. I borrowed it from a friend a few years ago, which is why I thought it was high time I got my own copy. Unfortunately, once I did, I found that the actual quality of the printing of this edition is horrible. The paper feels cheap and the text looks as if it were poorly photocopied. You would definitely not expect this from an edition billed as "more durable and elegantly bound edition". The only good thing I could say about this edition is that the cover is indeed beautiful, which is a good thing if all you want is something that looks nice on a bookshelf.

I recommend the 4th edition instead.
Was this review helpful to you?
96 of 106 people found the following review helpful
A beautiful edition April 2, 2009
Format:Hardcover
I picked this up sometime in December, after having read the original edition online for free. I know it has been getting a lot of bad reviews citing greed and whatnot, so I thought I'd add my thoughts on this newest edition of the most useful primer on the craft of writing.

In my opinion, the biggest draw of this new edition is the cover. It's black and professional looking; The perfect compliment for your shelf of writing books. I would recommend this edition to anyone willing to spend a little extra for a copy that isn't likely to fall apart after a few dozen reads. Long after you feel you've mastered all there is, you will still find yourself dipping into this now and again as a refresher. The advice is timeless and this high-quality edition does it justice.

If you're a student or don't care about a nicely bound hardcover, you could do just fine getting the ~$10 softcover edition.
Was this review helpful to you?
42 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Down to earth and helpful April 15, 2009
Format:Hardcover
It's concise.
It's humorous.
It's straightforward.
It's well balanced and reasonably biased.
It's articulate and persuading.
It's just handy if you'd like to write in English.
All in all, it's a must buy.
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Get the paperback
The stars rating is for the 50th Anniversary edition, not the content, which everyone knows is fantastic. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Roberto
A Timeless Treasure
This timeless little book, "The Elements of Style", By William Strunk Jr., and E.B. White, is probably on every writer's go to informational shelf. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Susan
The best small writing book you can get
This is the best writing book on styles that you can ever get. This is not about teaching how to write, but it is about the style of writing.
Published 3 months ago by husainaloos
Great book
This is a great guide for those who need help in improving their writing. I would recommend this book for high school and college students.
Published 4 months ago by Juan
Great advice, and a beautiful gift
Some schools don't teach the basic punctuation and grammar like they used to, so I found this to be a very handy guide on my bookshelf. Read more
Published 6 months ago by keep_calm_and_read_a_book
It's a great book with best quality!
I bought this book because I have a thing for hard cover. I saw some earlier reviews that the quality of the paper might not be satisfying, but I decided to give it a try. Read more
Published 7 months ago by hcb
A bit Disappointing in Quality of Printing
You would think that for a hard bound book they would do a better printing. I don't know how to explain it but it just looks like poor quality. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Richard Parker
Elements of Style
Every child should grow up using this book as a guide and reference to writing. Too bad I had to find out about it when I was 40. Get this book to improve your skills.
Published 8 months ago by rebader
Notes on this edition
When I was buying the 50th anniversary edition I was a bit concerned because one of the reviews said that the printing was like cheap photocopy. That was not true at all. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Yu Kaname
not only for foreign students using English as a second language, but...
currently I'm using it as a text book at school
it just solves all of my clues about English grammar so far
I highly recommend this! :)
Published 9 months ago by claire
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