Dreyer's English
Page 26
I lack, by far, Lily Briscoe’s certainty, though I recognize her exhaustion.
An early title for this book was The Last Word, which was soon discarded for any number of excellent reasons, one of them being that there is no last word. There’s no rule without an exception (well, mostly), there’s no thought without an afterthought (at least for me), there’s always something you meant to say but forgot to say.
There’s no last word, only the next word.
Beyond the sources of information already mentioned throughout, I commend to you:
Theodore Bernstein’s Miss Thistlebottom’s Hobgoblins, one of the charmingest, smartest, most readable books on the subject of language I’ve ever read
and these exceptionally erudite, eminently bookmarkable sites, to which I return over and over:
Grammarist (grammarist.com)
Patricia T. O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman’s Grammarphobia (grammarphobia.com)
Jonathan Owen’s Arrant Pedantry (arrantpedantry.com)
Kory Stamper’s Harmless Drudgery (korystamper.wordpress.com)
Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com)
Mignon Fogarty’s Quick and Dirty Tips (quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl)
Stan Carey’s Sentence first (stancarey.wordpress.com)
John E. McIntyre’s You Don’t Say (baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog)
For my parents, Diana and Stanley
For Robert
I have never before been so happily and gratefully in debt, and at long last it’s time to pay up.
My teacher Gerry Pagliaro taught me how to play with words, and my professors Linda Jenkins and David Downs taught me how they work.
Meg Drislane, of St. Martin’s Press, took a chance on me, sight unseen, and gave me not only my first proofreading and copyediting jobs but careful, kind instruction and bountiful encouragement.
Amy Edelman furthered my education, uttered the fateful words “If you want to be a full-time freelancer, I’ll make sure there’s always something on your desk,” then upped the ante by inviting me to join the copyediting department of Random House. No fledgling production editor could have asked for a better, wiser, more supportive boss.
My early days in the house were blessed by the masterly professionalism of, particularly, Mitchell Ivers, Sono Rosenberg, Jean McNutt, Virginia Avery, the scintillating Jim Lambert, the once and future Bob Loomis, Kathy Rosenbloom, Deborah Aiges, and my eventual confidant, co-conspirator, and dear friend Kenn Russell. In due course of time I gained the acquaintance of Dan Menaker, who, though neither of us could have known it at the time, eventually flicked the switch that sparked the composition of this book. Lee Boudreaux, Sharon Delano, Laura Goldin, Libby McGuire, Timothy Mennel, Susan Mercandetti, Jennifer Smith, Benjamin Steinberg, Mark Tavani, Bruce Tracy, Jane von Mehren, and Amelia Zalcman have been as well quintessentially the right colleagues at the right moments, and also much more than that.
I have been honored to work hand in hand with scores of gifted authors, and as I did my best to offer them and their books support, attention, and care, they gave much to me as well. I bow particularly to Gail Buckley, Michael Chabon, E. L. Doctorow, David Ebershoff (who efficiently doubled as a superb colleague), Janet Evanovich, Brenda Fowler, Leonard Garment, Jesse Green, Gerald Gunther, Fred Hobson, Frances Kazan, Lauren Kessler, Tom King, Michael Korda, Elizabeth Lesser, Robert K. Massie, Patrick McGrath, Nancy Milford, David Mitchell, Edmund Morris, Angela Nissel, Whitney Otto, Suzan-Lori Parks, Thomas Perry, Michael Pollan, Peter Quinn, Frank Rich, Sam Roberts, Isabella Rossellini (it’s a long story, and a good one), Nancy Rubin, Richard Russo, Lisa See, Nancy Silverton, Elizabeth Spencer, Peter Straub, and Calvin Trillin.
My voyage these last few years has been guided and safeguarded by myriad beacons of light. I can’t possibly thank here everyone I’d like to and ought, so this improbably succinct (no, really) list must serve as synecdoche, with a pledge to convey further gratitude face-to-face as the opportunity presents itself:
Ryan Adams, Sam Adams, Robert Arbuckle, Kevin Ashton, Mark Athitakis, Nathalie Atkinson, Dan Barry, Roland Bates, John Baxindine, Tom Beer, Adam Begley, Matt Bell, Jolanta Benal, Brooks Benjamin, Melanie Benjamin, Eric Berlin, Jesse Berney, Glenda Burgess, Allison Burnett, Isaac Butler, Rosanne Cash, Kashana Cauley, Alexander Chee, Nicole Chung, Sarah Churchwell, Donald Clarke, Meg Waite Clayton, Nicole Cliffe, Jon Clinch, Clare Conville, Isabel Costello, Nick Coveney, Gregory Crouch, Quinn Cummings, Anne Margaret Daniel, Kevin Daly, Sir William Davenant, Dexter Davenport, A. N. Devers, Colin Dickey, Nathan Dunbar, Rhian Ellis, Teressa Esposito, Stephen Farrow, William Fatzinger, Jr., Tim Federle, Adam Feldman, Charles Finch, Toby Finlay, D. Foy, Chris Geidner, Eve Gordon, Elon Green, Matt Greene, Elizabeth Hackett, Rahawa Haile, Alex Halpern, Josh Hanagarne, Liberty Hardy, Quentin Hardy, Benjamin Harnett, Mark Harris, Scott Jordan Harris, Jamey Hatley, Bill Hayes, Meredith Hindley, Elliott Holt, Alexander Huls, Brian Jay Jones, Molly Jong-Fast, Guy Gavriel Kay, Joe Keenan, April Kimble, Julie Klam, Brian Koppelman, Rick Kot, Kalen Landow, Victor LaValle, J. Robert Lennon, Kelly Link, Laura Lippman, Brian Lombardi, Laura Lorson, Lyle Lovett, Lisa Lucas, Kelly Luce, Sarah Lyall, Jon Maas, Susan Elia MacNeal, Ben Mankiewicz, Josh Mankiewicz, Lily Mars, Max Maven, Alicia Mayer, Walter Mayes, Theodore McCombs, John McDougall, Jenny McPhee, Jennifer Mendelsohn, Susan Scarf Merrell, Lincoln Michel, A. R. Moxon, Laurie Muchnick, Jennifer Mudge, Tomás Murray.
Breath.
Phyllis Nagy, Patrick Nathan, Farran Smith Nehme, Sally Nemeth, JD Nevesytrof, Sandra Newman, Maud Newton, Celeste Ng, Liz Nugent, Daniel José Older, Kerry O’Malley, Annette O’Toole, Pippin Parker, Bethanne Patrick, Nathaniel Penn, Sarah Perry, Lisa Jane Persky, Megan Phelps-Roper, Arthur Phillips, Andrew Pippos, Ivan Plis, Seth Pollins, Lily Potkin, Charlotte Prong, Paul Reid, Leela Rice, Mark Richard, Ben Rimalower, Michael Rizzo, Doug Robertson, Isabel Rogers, Helen Rosner, Gabriel Roth, Eric Ruben, Tim Sailer, Luc Sante, Mark Sarvas, Michael Schaub, Lucy Schaufer, Will Scheffer, Amy Scheibe, J. Smith-Cameron, Justin St. Germain, Levi Stahl, Daniel Summers, Claudette Sutherland, Quinn Sutherland, Sam Thielman, Paul Tremblay, Peternelle van Arsdale, Eileen Vorbach, Ayelet Waldman, Tim Walker, Amanda Eyre Ward, Todd Waring, Katharine Weber, Sarah Weinman, Kate Williams, Shauna Wright, Simon Wroe, Stephanie Zacharek, Laura Zigman, Jess Zimmerman, Stefano Zocchi, and Renée Zuckerbrot.
Was it not the poet who said, “Wait, I’m just beginning”?
I salute the members of Wordsmith Twitter, that peculiar subset on whom I rely for so many things, including keeping me in line, among them Mark Allen, Colleen Barry, Ashley Bischoff, Emily Brewster, DeAnna Burghart, Jeremy Butterfield, Stan Carey, June Casagrande, Iva Cheung, Karen Conlin, Katy Cooper, Jon Danziger, Allan Fallow, Emmy Jo Favilla, Mignon Fogarty, James M. Fraleigh, Nancy Friedman, Joe Fruscione, Henry Fuhrmann, Peter Ginna, Jennifer Gracen, Jonathon Green, Sarah Grey, James Harbeck, Andy Hollandbeck, Ross Howard, Martyn Wendell Jones, Blake Leyers, Gretchen McCulloch, John McIntyre, Erin McKean, Lisa McLendon, Howard Mittelmark, Lynne Murphy, Lauren Naturale, Mary Norris, Jonathon Owen, Maria Petrova, Carol Fisher Saller, Heather E. Saunders, Laura Sewell, Jesse Sheidlower, Peter Sokolowski, Daniel Sosnoski, Dawn McIlvain Stahl, Kory Stamper, Eugenie Todd, Christian Wilkie, Karen Wise, and Ben Yagoda.
For keeping me alive and kicking when that seemed something other than an inevitability, I thank Keili Glynn and Jori Masef, and for ongoing maintenance I thank Christina Sekaer and Noa Phuntsok.
For invaluable guidance, I thank Catherine Boyle, Gregor Gardner, and Katharina Tornau.
Love of an ineffable sort to Alan Bowden, Hannah Bowden, Joe Chiplock, Kathleen Daly, Alison Fraser, Ron Goldberg, Ruth Hirshey, Rupert Holmes, Susan Kartzmer, Mark Leydorf, Paraic O’Donnell, Deanna Raybourn, Sabrina Wolfe, Jacob Yeagley, and Jeff Zentner.
To the memory of Kenn Hempel, Victor D’Altorio,
and Martha Lavey.
For her boundless love, compassion, generosity of spirit, and wit, I continue to pledge my fealty to Her Grace Duchess Goldblatt. One could not ask for a truer fictitious friend.
Victory Matsui, Cal Morgan, and Cassie Jones Morgan were key and crucial readers of this work at key and crucial moments, and Jon Meacham makes his presence known in all the best ways.
Out of the goodness of his heart, Mathew Lyons bestowed on me a most precious gift: a title.
In a class by themselves are my muses Amy Bloom, Rachel Joyce, Yiyun Li, Elizabeth McCracken, and that one particular spirit who cloaks herself in shadow but every now and then lets me know she’s there, paying attention.
A unique thank you to the unique Sanyu Dillon, who might not have known what a seemingly offhand remark one noontime would lead to, but probably, in that way she has, did.
I do not have anything like the proper words to thank Kate Medina, Connie Schultz, Elizabeth Strout, and Ann Wroe, but I will do my best to embody my devotion for the rest of my days.
I am grateful to my departmental colleagues, with whom I collaborate day after day to produce, all credit to them, excellent book after excellent book: Pam Alders, Ted Allen, Rebecca Berlant, Matt Burnett, Evan Camfield, Kelly Chian, Nancy Delia, Paul Gilbert, Penny Haynes, Laura Jensen, Dylan Julian, Vincent La Scala, Steve Messina, Loren Noveck, Beth Pearson, Jennifer Rodriguez, Leah Sims, and Janet Wygal. And particular gratitude to my brother in arms and this book’s mighty production editor, Dennis Ambrose.
My dazzling agent, Jennifer Joel, has been my tireless champion from the day we first breakfasted—impossibly patient, affectionately imposing, eternally supportive. Through the great swaths of time when I was certain I couldn’t and wouldn’t ever complete this book, she made certain that I knew that I both could and would. And thus I did.
I have benefited immeasurably from the guidance of supernal editors Noah Eaker, Ben Greenberg, and Molly Turpin, who have, as necessary (and boy was it necessary), word-wrangled, nerve-soothed, whip-cracked, head-patted, and gone a terribly long time never quite knowing who was stalking them on any given day: the briskly efficient managing editor or the utterly rattled author.
Gina Centrello, Lisa Feuer, and Susan Kamil have been my generals, my guides, my encouragers, and my friends, and they have supported me in myriad ways, this book almost least among them. They have made and maintained a place for me, and that, as they say, has made all the difference.
Tom Perry and Andy Ward are two of the hardest-working men in show business, and surely the smartest. And kindest. And cleverest.
Carole Lowenstein designed this book’s text so empathically that, as I first set eyes on her jubilantly brandished sheaf of sample pages, I knew that I was seeing precisely what I’d been hoping to see for years, which she rightfully presented as an exquisite inevitability.
The jacket is as well everything I could have dreamed of, and I hope that the insides of the book have lived up to the wit and elegance of that which is wrapped around them. For this I thank Jamie Keenan and Joe Perez.
Production manager Richard Elman knows how to turn a book into A Book: a tangible, palpable, corporeal thing, beautiful to look at and a pleasure to hold. I thank him for mine.
My publicist, Melanie DeNardo, has done a capital job of preparing me for the world and vice versa, and audio producer Kelly Gildea, director Scott Cresswell, and engineer Brian Ramcharan have given me voice.
Bonnie Thompson is (literally!) a copy editor’s copy editor, and I’m happily beholden to her for cheering me on while kindly calling out all my worst habits, firmly disagreeing with me when I needed to be firmly disagreed with, bringing order to my endlessly digressive digressions, and every now and then oh just suggesting a bit of alternate text so astonishingly adept that I had no choice but to appropriate it and stuff it into the manuscript. As I trust she knew I would.
Further shout-out to proofreaders Kristin Jones, Kristen Strange, and Rachel Broderick, for scouring, scrubbing, crossing the i’s, dotting the t’s.
Thank you to Chris Carruth, for indexing above and beyond the call of duty.
In further and appropriate gratitude, I would, if I could, set here the full contents of the Random House divisional phone directory, but I must of necessity home in on this book’s particular co-creators and express my appreciation to and for: Rachel Ake, Jennifer Backe, Janice Barcena, Maria Braeckel, Heather Brown, Porscha Burke, Jessica Cashman, Dan Christensen, Susan Corcoran, Denise Cronin, Andrea DeWerd, Toby Ernst, Barbara Fillon, Deborah Foley, Lisa Gonzalez, Michael Harney, Mika Kasuga, Cynthia Lasky, Leigh Marchant, Matthew Martin, Sally Marvin, Caitlin McCaskey, Catherine Mikula, Grant Neumann, Tom Nevins, Allyson Pearl, Paolo Pepe, Matt Schwartz, James Smith, Philip Stamper-Halpin, Bill Takes, Patsy Tucker, Katie Tull, Erin Valerio, Sophie Vershbow, Stacey Witcraft, Katie Zilberman, and Theresa Zoro.
I can’t, I find, bring adjectives and adverbs to the subject of my family, because family is too big a concept, too brimming with content, to be neatly modified. Simply, then: To Diana and Stanley Dreyer, to Nancy Dreyer (and the late Joan Koffman), to Gabriel Dreyer, to Sam Hess, to Julie Toll, James MacLean, Emma MacLean, and Henry MacLean, to Diane Greenberg: Thank you for being on my side.
Her very own thank you to Sallie, because she is the dictionary definition of unconditional love and is, as well, a Very Good Girl.
And finally: Robert Schmehr is my traveling companion, my heart and my soul, my first thought every morning and my last thought every night. Robert, you have waited a long time for this book. Here it is.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BENJAMIN DREYER is vice president, executive managing editor and copy chief, of Random House. He began his publishing career as a freelance proofreader and copy editor. In 1993, he became a production editor at Random House, where he oversaw books by writers including Michael Chabon, Edmund Morris, Suzan-Lori Parks, Michael Pollan, Peter Straub, and Calvin Trillin. He has copyedited books by authors including E. L. Doctorow, David Ebershoff, Frank Rich, and Elizabeth Strout, as well as Let Me Tell You, a volume of previously uncollected work by Shirley Jackson. A graduate of Northwestern University, he lives in New York City.
Twitter: @BCDreyer
What’s next on
your reading list?
Discover your next
great read!
* * *
Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author.
Sign up now.