There was an essay of Jacques Barzun's on copy editing that included a line like "Did I join a sect, to agree to be ruled by a book?" The volume it is in seems to have disappeared in one of our moves.
In his essay "Dialogue in C-Sharp," which is a chapter in his book A Word or Two Before You Go . . .* (subtitled on the jacket as "Brief Essays on Language"), Prof. Barzun writes in response to a younger editor who cited the Chicago Manual and whenever he could would:
". . . run words together and make the reader puzzle out the result. See here: antiintellectual in one word. What is the point? What has been gained?"
"The Chicago Manual--"
"Never mind the Manual-- it isn't holy scripture; I haven't joined a religious sect and taken an oath to be ruled by a book. My creed is that I put my name only to what I write; I write as I like; and I like hyphens-- especially when they make reading easier."
There was an essay of Jacques Barzun's on copy editing that included a line like "Did I join a sect, to agree to be ruled by a book?" The volume it is in seems to have disappeared in one of our moves.
ReplyDeleteIn his essay "Dialogue in C-Sharp," which is a chapter in his book A Word or Two Before You Go . . .* (subtitled on the jacket as "Brief Essays on Language"), Prof. Barzun writes in response to a younger editor who cited the Chicago Manual and whenever he could would:
ReplyDelete". . . run words together and make the reader puzzle out the result. See here: antiintellectual in one word. What is the point? What has been gained?"
"The Chicago Manual--"
"Never mind the Manual-- it isn't holy scripture; I haven't joined a religious sect and taken an oath to be ruled by a book. My creed is that I put my name only to what I write; I write as I like; and I like hyphens-- especially when they make reading easier."
(Wesleyan University Press, 1986; page 116)
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*http://books.google.com/books/about/A_Word_Or_Two_Before_You_Go.html?id=WGnRC53VpVcC
Thank you!
DeleteThank you, Dave. You just gave me a postscript.
ReplyDelete