Jane Straus (1954–2011) was an educator, life coach, and best-selling author. To prepare for a job teaching English to employees of the state of California in 1975, Straus scoured the library for materials that conveyed the rules of English in plain English. Finding no such resources, she wrote the rules her own way, made up exercises, ran off some copies, and hoped for the best.
The class was a hit. More and more state employees demanded that they get an equal opportunity to benefit from Straus's no-nonsense instruction in English grammar and usage. She continued to refine her materials, eventually turning them into The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation.
When the Internet was born, she launched a website, GrammarBook.com, which has helped millions of people all over the world improve their English grammar. Straus became a sought-after speaker in the fields of grammar, public speaking, and life coaching. Her other book is Enough Is Enough! Stop Enduring and Start Living Your Extraordinary Life (Jossey-Bass, 2005).
Lester Kaufman is the publisher of GrammarBook.com. A lifelong public servant, he served first in the Peace Corps, and eventually completed the final years of his federal career with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He married Jane Straus in 1987.
After his retirement from the EPA, Kaufman began assisting with the operation of Straus's fledgling website and helped edit previous editions of The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation.
Following Jane Straus's untimely passing in early 2011, Kaufman assumed management of GrammarBook.com, which features an informative and entertaining weekly newsletter that encourages readers to ask grammar questions and offer their views on the state of twenty-first-century English.
Tom Stern is a freelance writer and editor. After leaving a career in the music business in 1992, he became a copyeditor-reporter-critic, eventually working for a number of San Francisco Bay Area periodicals. In 2011, his twice-monthly grammar column for a Marin County newspaper chain placed first in the California Newspaper Publishers Association's Better Newspapers Contest.