ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In less than a decade, I have produced five books on writing, reading, language, and learning for one of the world’s best publishers: Little, Brown. I like to brag that I have the same publisher as Emily Dickinson, Louisa May Alcott, Evelyn Waugh, John Fowles, J. D. Salinger, Ansel Adams, David Foster Wallace, and—oh, did I mention Emily Dickinson? I’m having fun, of course, but when I see that list of authors and artists, it feels strange to be a member of their club, the one branded Little, Brown (please don’t forget that comma).

Personal thanks go to Michael Pietsch and Reagan Arthur for their great leadership at the Hachette Book Group and LB and for being champions of authors, publishers, and book lovers everywhere. What a blessing to have worked with my editor, Tracy Behar, on five books now. With me, at least, she has a magic touch. Great copyediting lives at LB, thanks to Betsy Uhrig and Barbara Clark. I am a lucky author to have had Keith Hayes design the covers for all five of my books. I implore readers everywhere: please, please judge my books by their fabulous covers.

Special thanks go to my agent, Jane Dystel—she deserves her own paragraph—a figure of wisdom and stability in my professional life.

All my work has been supported, for almost forty years, by the leaders of the Poynter Institute, the influential school for journalism and democracy in St. Petersburg, Florida. My colleagues, especially Tom French, help me learn something new about the writing craft every day. My writing students—of all ages—remind me of my mission and purpose. Please visit the Poynter website and its News University for resources for writers: poynter.org and newsu.org. Feel free to contact me at rclark@poynter.org.

While finishing a draft of this book, I received a phone call from one of my favorite writers on writing, William Zinsser, just before he passed away. Bill was the author of On Writing Well, a work that has sold more than a million copies. At the age of ninety-two, Bill was going strong. Though blind, he visited with aspiring writers in his Manhattan apartment and was working with a young tutor to learn how to write poetry. We reminisced about our occasional stints working together, going back to Poynter’s early days. I thanked him for everything he had done for writers, and he left me with this thought: “Let’s keep this mission going.” That mission is to recognize good writing wherever we see it, to encourage young writers to embrace the craft, and to remind everyone of the enduring power of the written word—all done in the spirit of democracy and in the public interest. Yes, let’s keep that mission going.

To the members of my family, I say thanks once again: Shirley, Vincent, Theodore, Alison, Deeds, Emily, Dan, Lauren, Chaz, Donovan, and—remembering the requirements of emphatic word order, putting the most important or interesting word at the end—Karen.