Follett's Modern American Usage
Encyclopedia
Follett's Modern American Usage is the book published with the title Modern American Usage which was left in draft form and unfinished by Wilson Follett
at his death. It was completed and edited by his friend Jacques Barzun
in collaboration with six other editors. It is a usage guide for contemporary American English
. Modern American Usage covers issues of usage, prose composition, and style, including English grammar
, syntax
and literary technique
s.
undertook the task of finishing and revising the work on the understanding that he would have help. This came from a group of writers and teachers of English: Carlos Baker
, Frederick W. Dupee, Dudley Fitts
, James D. Hart
, Phyllis McGinley
and Lionel Trilling
.
, doing for Americans, as it were, what Fowler had done for the writer of British English
. He was considered by expert reviewers to have struck the right balance of prescriptivity and to have trodden the right line between outdated, schoolmarmish rules and laissez-faire liberality in matters of grammar and usage.
The novelist, poet, literary critic and journalist Malcolm Cowley
reckoned that the Guide was "Sensible, vigorous, and cogent ... Follett deserves a place on the shelf beside Fowler."
Poet and critic Mark Van Doren
wrote "This is a book that any conscientious writer will continue to consult as long as he lives."
Clifton Fadiman
wrote: "A work comparable to Fowler's classic Modern English Usage.
Eliot Fremont-Smith wrote in The New York Times
: "Few have been more outspoken [in their attack on the permissive view] than the late Wilson Follett; and his Modern American Usage ... may be taken as the most detailed and sustained attack so far on the notion that anything goes — or should go."
The critic and author Louis Kronenberger
wrote that Follett's book was "the most highminded book of its kind since Fowler, and perhaps the only book with comparable credentials, sensibilities, and standards."
Lest anyone reading these comments conclude that, if anything, Follett was excessively traditional or prescriptive, it is worth quoting briefly from Follett's entry on the commonest English conjunction in which he is at pains to sweep away what he considers a long-outdated and erroneous stricture:
"and. A prejudice lingers from the days of schoolmarmish rhetoric that a sentence should not begin with and. The supposed rule is without foundation in grammar, logic or art. ... "
Wilson Follett
Wilson Follett was a writer, known now almost exclusively for his book Follett's Modern American Usage, which was unfinished at his death and was therefore completed and edited by his friend Jacques Barzun and published posthumously...
at his death. It was completed and edited by his friend Jacques Barzun
Jacques Barzun
Jacques Martin Barzun is a French-born American historian of ideas and culture. He has written on a wide range of topics, but is perhaps best known as a philosopher of education, his Teacher in America being a strong influence on post-WWII training of schoolteachers in the United...
in collaboration with six other editors. It is a usage guide for contemporary American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
. Modern American Usage covers issues of usage, prose composition, and style, including English grammar
English grammar
English grammar is the body of rules that describe the structure of expressions in the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses and sentences...
, syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
and literary technique
Literary technique
A literary technique is any element or the entirety of elements a writer intentionally uses in the structure of their work...
s.
Pre-publication
Wilson Follett devoted his last years to composing a book on a subject he had studied all his life: the usage of American English. However, when he died more than two-thirds of the manuscript were still in first draft. People who had read this draft felt that it would be intolerable for this work never to be published, so his friend Jacques BarzunJacques Barzun
Jacques Martin Barzun is a French-born American historian of ideas and culture. He has written on a wide range of topics, but is perhaps best known as a philosopher of education, his Teacher in America being a strong influence on post-WWII training of schoolteachers in the United...
undertook the task of finishing and revising the work on the understanding that he would have help. This came from a group of writers and teachers of English: Carlos Baker
Carlos Baker
Carlos Baker was an American writer, biographer and former Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton University. He earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D at Dartmouth, Harvard, and Princeton respectively. Baker's published works included several novels and books of poetry and various literary...
, Frederick W. Dupee, Dudley Fitts
Dudley Fitts
Dudley Fitts was an American teacher, critic, poet, andtranslator. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and attended Harvard University where he edited the Harvard Advocate. He taught at The Choate School 1926-1941 and at Phillips Academy at Andover 1941-1968...
, James D. Hart
James D. Hart
James David Hart, CBE was an American literary scholar and professor at University of California, Berkeley for fifty-four years. He is most notable for writing The Oxford Companion to American Literature and A Companion to California.-Biography:Hart was born in San Francisco, California...
, Phyllis McGinley
Phyllis McGinley
Phyllis McGinley was an American writer of children's books and poet about the positive aspects of suburban life.McGinley was born in Ontario, Oregon...
and Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling was an American literary critic, author, and teacher. With wife Diana Trilling, he was a member of the New York Intellectuals and contributor to the Partisan Review. Although he did not establish a school of literary criticism, he is one of the leading U.S...
.
Editions and Related Books
The first edition was published in 1966 as Modern American Usage, in both hardback and paperback editions. In 1979, an edition edited by Erik Wensberg appeared and this was reissued in hardback in 1998.Reception
As the quotations that follow show, Follett was generally compared favourably with FowlerHenry Watson Fowler
Henry Watson Fowler was an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on the usage of the English language...
, doing for Americans, as it were, what Fowler had done for the writer of British English
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
. He was considered by expert reviewers to have struck the right balance of prescriptivity and to have trodden the right line between outdated, schoolmarmish rules and laissez-faire liberality in matters of grammar and usage.
The novelist, poet, literary critic and journalist Malcolm Cowley
Malcolm Cowley
Malcolm Cowley was an American novelist, poet, literary critic, and journalist.-Early life:...
reckoned that the Guide was "Sensible, vigorous, and cogent ... Follett deserves a place on the shelf beside Fowler."
Poet and critic Mark Van Doren
Mark Van Doren
Mark Van Doren was an American poet, writer and a critic, apart from being a scholar and a professor of English at Columbia University for nearly 40 years, where he inspired a generation of influential writers and thinkers including Thomas Merton, Robert Lax, John Berryman, and Beat Generation...
wrote "This is a book that any conscientious writer will continue to consult as long as he lives."
Clifton Fadiman
Clifton Fadiman
Clifton P. "Kip" Fadiman was an American intellectual, author, editor, radio and television personality.-Literary career:...
wrote: "A work comparable to Fowler's classic Modern English Usage.
Eliot Fremont-Smith wrote in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
: "Few have been more outspoken [in their attack on the permissive view] than the late Wilson Follett; and his Modern American Usage ... may be taken as the most detailed and sustained attack so far on the notion that anything goes — or should go."
The critic and author Louis Kronenberger
Louis Kronenberger
Louis Kronenberger was an American critic and author. He was a novelist and biographer, and wrote extensively on drama and the 18th century.-Biography:He studied at the University of Cincinnati from 1921...
wrote that Follett's book was "the most highminded book of its kind since Fowler, and perhaps the only book with comparable credentials, sensibilities, and standards."
Lest anyone reading these comments conclude that, if anything, Follett was excessively traditional or prescriptive, it is worth quoting briefly from Follett's entry on the commonest English conjunction in which he is at pains to sweep away what he considers a long-outdated and erroneous stricture:
"and. A prejudice lingers from the days of schoolmarmish rhetoric that a sentence should not begin with and. The supposed rule is without foundation in grammar, logic or art. ... "
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