Search results for: William Zinsser
The Right to Write
Because I’ve long taught a course in memoir writing and have frequently written about that form, I often hear from people who want to be sure I didn’t miss still another article expressing horror that so many bad memoirs keep being published. The latest object of their wrath is a recent essay in …
Read MoreGreat Moments with Mr. Lincoln
Once, on a visit to Disneyland, strolling along its strenuously quaint turn-of-the-century Main Street, past ice-cream parlors and candy palaces and penny arcades, I noticed a building called the Disneyland Opera House. On its marquee it said GREAT MOMENTS WITH MR. LINCOLN. I’m always up for great moments with Mr …
Read MoreNo Second Act
The American writer John Horne Burns was one of those literary meteorites that hurtle across the sky and then burn up. Nobody remembers him today. But I’ll never forget how his World War II novel The Gallery once intersected with my life.
In 1944 I was a 21-year-old Army private, formerly a …
Stardust Memories
As Time Goes By
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
The Lady Is a Tramp
Everything’s Coming Up Roses
Those are only five of the dozens of phrases and idioms that have been added to America’s vernacular speech by its popular songwriters. Traditionally, that’s what a nation …
E-Maledictions
I’m struck by how many people chastise me for not using email. It’s as if I have violated the order of the universe. My decision doesn’t seem strange to me. It’s the result of certain choices I’ve made about how I want to live my life. I meet a lot …
Read MoreBlondie and Dilbert
The New Year begins with a journalistic bombshell. As of January 2, 2011, Brenda Starr, Reporter, will do no more reporting; her syndicate announced that it is canceling the comic strip after 70 years. Seventy years! That’s one of the great American streaks, no less impressive than Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak …
Read MoreObama and the Lac Bug
… a shellac factory in Mainz, the center of the German furniture industry, which depends on shellac to coat and finish its products. Americanizing his name, he founded William Zinsser & Company and built a small shellac factory and a small house far “uptown” at what is now 10th Avenue and 59th Street. I have a photograph …
Read MoreStopping Steve Martin
Please imagine that it is May 29, 1913, and you are attending the world premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, choreographed by Nijinksy, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. The conductor is Pierre Monteux. In its glitter and glamour and lofty expectations it is an event of highest wattage.
The …
“Bring Back Boredom!”
I have a lot of pen pals and phone pals, most of whom I’ve never met. Sometimes one of them makes it to New York and I get to connect the voice on the phone or the person on the page with its matching face and shape. Usually there’s no resemblance to my …
Read MoreWhy I Don’t Give Tips on How to Write
“We want you to come to our school and talk to our students about writing,” said the voice on the phone, introducing himself as the chairman of the school’s English department. I asked what he had in mind. “We’d like you to give our students some tips that will make them better …
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