Monday, August 31, 2009

how can i help this writer


Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should say to himself, "How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?" and avoid "How can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?"

~ James Thurber in a 1959 memo to The New Yorker

[Damen Avenue at Chicago Avenue]

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