How to Write With Style (and other insights into writing and reading)

In 1982 or so the International Paper Company published essays about the arts of reading and writing and written by luminaries in the area or popular figures like Kurt Vonnegut, George Plimpton, John Irving, James Dickey, Jane Bryant Quinn, Steve Allen, James Michener, Tony Randall, Malcomb Forbes, and Bill Cosby. Trust me: these were all luminaries or popular figures in 1982 or so.


All the essays are pretty good -- they still are pretty good, for that matter. Vonnegut's essay (image), for example, made the following recommendations (which, I think, read better in the context of the essay than as a list, but whatever):

• Find a subject you care about. 
• Do not ramble, though. 
• Keep it simple. 
• Have the guts to cut. 
• Sound like yourself. 
• Say what you mean to say. 
• Pity the readers.
• For really detailed advice [go to Strunk & White's The Elements of Style].

Those sound like good advice -- something I, for one, could learn from. So, I'm off to print and read the series. Links via boing boing.