William Strunk Jr. (1869-1946) was an American professor of English at Cornell University and the original author of The Elements of Style, the slim usage guide that became one of the most influential writing manuals in the English language.
Strunk first produced the book privately in 1918 for use in his own composition classes, distilling the principles of clear, concise prose into a short set of rules and reminders. His insistence on brevity, captured in the famous instruction to omit needless words, became its enduring hallmark.
Decades later one of his former students, the essayist E. B. White, revised and expanded the book for a general audience. The resulting Strunk and White edition has sold millions of copies and remained a staple of writing instruction for generations.
Though Strunk produced other scholarly work during his long Cornell career, it is the little book of style that secured his lasting place in the history of American writing.
