William Zinsser, a writer’s writer if there ever was one, died this week. I wonder how many of the authors whose books are featured in this blog have read or taught from On Writing Well. I agree with the editors and teachers who believe that this book ought to be reread annually. Here’s a small slice: “Don’t try to be a ‘writer’. . . . Be yourself and your readers will follow you anywhere. . . . Your product is you. The crucial transaction in memoir and personal history is the transaction between you and your remembered experiences and emotions.”
William Zinsser, On Writing Well, Seventh Edition (New York: Collins, Harper Collins Publishers, 2006), p. 281.