Born in France in 1907, Jacques Barzun came to the United States in 1920.After graduating from Columbia College,
he joined the faculty of the university, becoming Seth Low Professor of History and, for a decade, Dean of Faculties
and Provost. The author of some thirty books, he received the Gold Medal for Criticism from the American Academy
of Arts and Letters, of which he was twice president.
Summary
After a lifetime of writing and editing prose, Jacques Barzun has set down his view of the best ways to improve
one's style. His discussions of diction, syntax, tone, meaning, composition, and revision guide the reader through
the technique of making the written word clear and agreeable to read. Exercises, model passages both literary and
casual, and hundreds of amusing examples of usage gone wrong show how to choose the right path to self-expression
in forceful and distinctive words.
