Editing William Strunk Jr. (section)

==Life and career==
William Strunk was born and reared in [[Cincinnati]], [[Ohio]], the eldest of the four surviving children of William and Ella Garretson Strunk.<ref>Garvey, 3–4. William Strunk Sr., teacher and lawyer, was the son of German immigrants and fluently bilingual.</ref> He earned a bachelor's degree at the [[University of Cincinnati]] in 1890 and a PhD at Cornell University in 1896. He spent the academic year 1898–99 at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] and the [[Collège de France]], where he studied [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] and [[philology]].<ref>Garvey, 5–6.</ref>

Strunk first taught mathematics at [[Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology|Rose Polytechnical Institute]] in [[Terre Haute, Indiana]] in 1890–91.<ref>''Who Was Who'', vol. 2.</ref> He then taught English at Cornell for 46 years, and was elected to [[Phi Beta Kappa]],<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/catalogueofcorne00phibrich | page=[https://archive.org/details/catalogueofcorne00phibrich/page/38 38] | quote=william Strunk phi beta kappa. |title = A Catalogue of the Cornell Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa (Theta of New York): 1882-1912| publisher=Phi Beta Kappa |last1 = Kappa|first1 = Phi Beta|year = 1912}}</ref> disdaining specialization and becoming an expert in both classical and non-English literature.<ref>Cornell University, ''Necrology of the Faculty'', in Garvey, 199.</ref> In 1922 he published ''English Metres'', a study of poetic metrical form, and he compiled critical editions of [[Cynewulf]]'s ''[[Juliana (poem)|Juliana]]'', several works of [[Dryden]], [[James Fenimore Cooper]]'s ''[[Last of the Mohicans]]'', and several [[William Shakespeare|Shakespearean]] plays.<ref>Garvey, 25.</ref> Strunk was also active in a gathering known as the Manuscript Club, an "informal Saturday-night gathering of students and professors interested in writing," where he met "a sensitive and deeply thoughtful young man named [[E.B. White|Elwyn Brooks White]]."<ref>Garvey, 9.</ref>

In 1935–36, Strunk enjoyed serving as the literary consultant for the [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] film ''[[Romeo and Juliet (1936 film)|Romeo and Juliet]]'' (1936). In the studio he was known as "the professor," in part because, with his three-piece suit and wire-rim spectacles, he "looked as though he'd been delivered to the set from MGM's casting department."<ref>Garvey, 170.</ref>

In 1918, Strunk privately published ''[[The Elements of Style]]'' for the use of his Cornell students, who gave it its nickname, "the little book." Strunk intended the guide "to lighten the task of instructor and student by concentrating attention&nbsp;... on a few essentials, the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated." In 1935, Strunk and Edward A. Tenney revised and published the guide as ''The Elements and Practice of Composition'' (1935).

In his ''[[The New Yorker|New Yorker]]'' column of July 27, 1957, E. B. White praised the "little book" as a "forty-three-page summation of the case for cleanliness, accuracy, and brevity in the use of English."<ref>''The Elements of Style'', Fiftieth Anniversary Edition (2009), xiii.</ref> [[Macmillan and Company]] then commissioned White to revise the 1935 edition for republication under Strunk's original title. His expansion and modernization sold more than two million copies. Since 1959, total sales of the three editions have exceeded ten million copies.<ref>''The Elements of Style'' Fiftieth Anniversary Edition (2009), x; Garvey, xvi. An audio edition read by [[Frank McCourt]] was released in 2008; a video version, created in the late 1980s, was narrated by [[Charles Osgood]]; and an operatic [[song cycle]], ''The Elements of Style: Nine Songs'', was composed by [[Nico Muhly]]. (A reviewer of the latter noted that "the operatic style of the piece rendered the lyrics all but unintelligible." Garvey, xvi–xvii.</ref>

In 1900, Strunk married Olivia Emilie Locke, with whom he had three children, including the noted musicologist [[Oliver Strunk]].<ref>Garvey, 6. Strunk's daughter, Catherine, became a medical doctor and a research pediatrician and author at Yale. Her twin brother, Edwin, worked as an engineer in the automobile industry.</ref> William Strunk retired from Cornell in 1937. In 1945 he suffered a mental breakdown, diagnosed as "senile psychosis", and died less than a year later at the [[Hudson River State Hospital|Hudson River Psychiatric Institute]] in [[Poughkeepsie, New York]].<ref>Garvey, 194–99.  Funeral services were held at Cornell University, and he was buried in a family plot in Pleasant Grove Cemetery, just north of the university.</ref> Strunk's Cornell obituary noted that his friends and former students remembered "his kindness, his helpfulness as a teacher and colleague, [and] his boyish lack of envy and guile".<ref>Cornell University, ''Necrology of the Faculty'', in Garvey, 200.</ref>