The Writer Who Stayed by Zinsser, William Reprint Edition

by William Zinsser

William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well and many other books, wrote a weekly blog for The American Scholar—about writing, the arts, New York, and popular culture. The Writer Who Stayed collects these engaging pieces by one of America's best essayists. Relationships, storytelling, baseball, summer reading, comic strips, Woody Allen—Bill Zinsser illuminates modern life.

Genres: Writing, Essays, Nonfiction, Journalism

Unknown Binding

First published September 18, 2012

About the author

William Knowlton Zinsser is an American writer, editor, literary critic, and teacher. He began his career as a journalist for the New York Herald Tribune, where he worked as a feature writer, drama editor, film critic, and editorial writer. He has been a longtime contributor to leading magazines.

Reviews

[Larraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm often reminded of the many gaps in my education when I read a book by an author who just knocks my socks off only to discover that he's been around for years. In this case it's William Zinsser, a 90 yr old writer who, I'm sure, a great many in the literate world know, but I didn't until now.

If nothing else, he's known for his book On Writing Well. This slim volume is a collection of essays written by Mr. Zinsser in the digital world of the American Scholar.

He writes the way my professors in college taught us to write: clean, spare, and deceptively simple. That's an art that seems to be missing in some of the articles I read both in magazines and on websites. The prevailing attitude seems to be "Why write 300 words when you can write 600?" The book is divided into several sections, one of which deals in writing.

One of his writing "rules" is basically "pare it down." (Something I heard from my professors. I guess that was the way it was done then.) There is an elegance in Mr. Zinsser's writing that is missing among so many contemporary writers. He doesn't sacrifice truth nor does he sugarcoat. He DOES leave some things unsaid because they really don't NEED to be said.

He IS something of a curmudgeon. He detests people who say they have "issues." He says that today's issues are what "people used to call the routine hills and bumps of getting from morning to night." Then there's the whole concept of "sharing." He refers to the word "share" as "the word I most loathe in the feel-good lexicon."

I have to agree with him on that one. I've heard people talking together while a class or lecture is going on. The speaker stops and says, somewhat plaintively, "Do you have something to share?" William Zinsser would, I believe, simply stop what he was saying and say quite simply, "I'm speaking. It's not polite to talk when someone else is speaking." I'm with him.

This book is an eclectic and varied group of essays: 1. Culture And The Arts, 2. The Craft of Writing, 3. Tech Age, 4. Faraway Places, 5. Language, and 6. Reverberations. Every one of them is a gem. Whether he is talking about song lyrics or Blondie or email or language or a trip to Myanmar, Mr. Zinsser is entertaining, thought provoking and above all, a thoughtful and elegant writer. May he write for many more years because I'm not ready to say goodbye!

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I began reading William Zinsser's "The Writer Who Stayed" (a collection of essays published in the American Scholar) to pick up some writing tips; but I picked up infinitely more. I strongly recommend anyone interested in good and powerful writing to read this book.

Although I won't do Zinsser any justice, here are some quotes I copied down.

"I believe that anything can be cut to 300 words.... [T]he English language is endlessly supple. It will do anything you ask it to do, if you treat it well. Try it and see."

"Tips can make someone a better writer but not necessarily a good writer. That's a larger package—a matter of character.... In my own work I operate within a framework of Christian values, and the words that are important to me are religious words."

"There are many good reasons for writing your memoir that have nothing to do with being published. One is to leave your children and grandchildren a record of who you were and what heritage they were born into. Please get started on that; time tends to surprise us by running out. One of the saddest sentences I know is 'I wish I had asked my mother about that.' "

Teachers are put on the earth "to help students grow into the people they are supposed to become." I might add that the pastor is called, above all, to help sheep grow into the sheep they are supposed to become and one day will be.

Zinsser rails against multi-tasking and instead argues for mono-tasking and the importance of boredom. He writes: "Some of our most creative work gets done in downtime—waking from a nap, taking a walk, daydreaming in the shower.... Downtime is when breakthrough ideas are delivered to us, unsummoned, when yesterday's blockages somehow come unblocked. That's because we treated ourselves to a little boredom and cleared our brains of the sludge of information."

"I write by ear, and sound is what leads me to what I'm rummaging for."

Abraham Lincoln is "the writer I most often revisit to remind myself of the simple strength of the English language."

BTW, the NYTimes recently ran a heartwarming piece on Zinsser, who though now 90 and blind from glaucoma, continues to help writers. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/boo...

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love William Zinsser's writing, especially when he writes about writing. On Writing Well is a classic - a great book that I revisit every year or two.

The Writer Who Stayed is a collection of short essays - well, blog posts - that Zinsser wrote for The American Scholar in 2010-2011, just before he turned 90. They're mostly what you would expect from Zinsser: plainly written and very personal (lots about New York City, serving in WWII, American song, writing style, and his family and friends). I was especially taken by an essay comparing the craft of writing to the craft of plumbing. I'm very sympathetic to his ongoing themese of 1) strengthening writing by stripping it down and 2) celebrating possibilities and stressing the positive. But to the second point, a slightly acidic crotchetiness gives a sour note to several of the essays - certainly he has earned it, but it blemishes some otherwise pristine work.

If you're a fan of Zinsser's - or interested at all in how to write well - then you absolutely should read this book. (It seems that the original essays are no longer posted on The American Scholar's site.) But start with On Writing Well, if you haven't already dog-eared your copy.

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A master craftsman. A talented and cultured artist. A refined writer who has used a sharp wit to hone his abilities. Zinsser has remained one of my recently discovered favorites.

"Of course I know that writers, like everyone else, have to pay the bills. But I believe that blind subservience to an imagined final product is harmful to the body and soul and is also often unnecessary."

In reading this all the way through quickly one will come across repeated facts. But savoring these pieces over a time is quite enjoyable.

"But what raises travel writing to literature is not what the writer brings to a place, but what the place draws out of the writer. It helps to be a little crazy."

A talented curmudgeon who's not afraid to tell it like it is, make words work for him, and stop exactly at the end.

"For the first time I understood the heroin-like tug of constantly available information.... I saw that if data exists, it has to be accessed, whatever the cost in friendship or civility. Information trumps conversation."

[Hina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time I finish a book by William Zinsser, I'm left feeling warm and fuzzy. This book not only showcases what a wonderful writer he was, but also shines a light on his humanity and personality. Reflecting on this new tech age in many of his essays, he sounds like a man from a bygone era. I wish I could have known the world as he knew it; it sounded infinitely simpler and pure.

[Jeff Zell · Rating 5 out of 5]

These delightful, brief essays are culled from Zinsser on Friday that appeared on the American Scholar website. The irony is that Zinsser did not use email or the Internet. He did, finally, in his later years give up his trustworthy typewriter and use a computer to write. But he refused to use email, twitter, etc. He preferred old school methods of communication such as the telephone, USPS mail, and meeting face to face without a digital intermediary.

The essays are divided into six sections: Culture and the Arts, Craft of Writing, Tech Age, Faraway Places, Language, and Reverberations. The topics range from personal memories of family, his military service in Italy, travels in USA and abroad, and the writers and musicians he met and interviewed and enjoyed.

The essays are always positive, well written and clear. All the advice he gave in On Writing Well is on full display here. I will return to these essays in a few years. It is good to keep reading good, skillful writing. Zinsser continues to teach us how to observe, interview, and tell a story.

[Dan Lalande · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tidy collection of bite-sized essays by the estimable Zinsser, America's favorite writing guru. The man, in these lightly intellectual blogs collected from his late-career contributions to American Scholar Magazine, truly practiced what he preached: they're shining examples that plain language can indeed entertain. There's a lot of "old man grumbling about the price of progress," of course, but enough on a range of fancies and considerations to otherwise delight.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not so much a book as collection of short essays written by the guy who wrote On Writing Well. Lots of sentimental looking back, but enjoyable nonetheless. Read it over the course of a few months. Idea that stuck with me was: Don't ask permission. If you've decided that there's something that you want to do or someone you want to be, then do it, be it.

[Mysteryfan · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the age of 87, William Zinsser started blogging for The American Scholar in 2010. This collection of those blog entries should be required reading for any aspiring writer. From the first entry on content management to entries on short and long form writing, it's all brilliant. I just wish there were more.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love it that Mr. Zinsser was 87 years old when he started writing the blog "Zinsser on Friday." But even more than that, I love it that The American Scholar didn't think he was too old to write a blog.

A few favorites: "Me and my relationships," "Hats off," "Prisoners of Britspeak."

[E. Farris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a good essay that is organized, compressed, and well crafted.
The essays in this collection are exactly that. They are easy to read and straight-forward in their delivery.
And even better, they serve as good examples of Zinsser's advice in his book "On Writing Well".

[Paul Sand · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Imported automatically from my blog. Some formatting there may not have translated here.]

I put this book in by virtual to-be-read pile based on this column from George F. Will. Back when I bought books on writing, I bought a couple by William F. Zinsser: the acknowledged classic On Writing Well[image error] and Writing to Learn.[image error] I decided to go the library route for this one, and the always helpful University Near Here snagged a copy for me from Boston College.

This book is a collection of Zinsser's web columns for the American Scholar magazine in 2010 and 2011. A longtime print journalist, he was in his late eighties when he started writing for the web, and only stopped because his vision deteriorated to the point where it became impossible. (During this time he did not have an e-mail address; one of the essays describes his reasoning, and it's quite convincing.)

The essays are short, and I recommend reading them the way I did: two or three a day. Small bites, so you can appreciate the taste of each. There are a dizzying array of topics, touching, informative, enlightening. Zinsser can make just about anything interesting, I think.

For example: there's an essay on hats. Another one on meeting Edd Roush, the (then) oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, six days before he died. Another one about how he crafted an essay on Ellis Island, limited to a mere 300 words. Another one on why he doesn't give "tips" to writers. And on.

You can read these essays on two levels: they are interesting on their own, of course, but they are also shining examples of getting words to say what you want, with power, without waste.

Only one exception I noticed, in an essay subtitled "Why Plumbers Are a Good Role Model For Writers":

It may seem perverse that I compare my writing to plumbing, an occupation not regarded as high-end. But to me all work is equally honorable, all crafts an astonishment when they are performed with skill and self-respect.

Of course that's good. But my inner Mr. Editor says:

It may seem perverse that I compare my writing to plumbing, an occupation not regarded as high-end. But to me all work is equally honorable, all crafts an astonishment when they are performed with skill and self-respect.

(There's a new definition of chutzpah: thinking you can improve Zinsser's writing.)

[Gregory Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few weeks back, in a book review posted in the Wall Street Journal I rediscovered a man who helped me in my writing. William Zinsser’s newest book The Man Who Stayed, is a treat and delight, the ramblings and musings of a cultural effete. For Mr. Zinsser, the world is rushing by and he no longer cares about trying to keep up, there is much to be said for the old and true. His book is more than that, it is a life lived in easily digested bites. Zinsser, now in his 90s, has lived long and large. Writer, editor, newspaperman, teacher, critic, and magazine contributor (and the list would go on and on in infinite variations), self-proclaimed WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant to those now culturally blind). A proud man, a man not easily convinced that progress is just that.


He has, as most of us have at one time or another, difficulties with changing styles, words, and technology. Boogie-woogie was scary at one time and I still remember clients demanding that I get a FAX machine – yes, you don’t have to be 91 to be bitchie. Mr. Zinsser is a man of style, his and his alone. Always well dressed, always with a fedora or proper hat (baseball caps belong at the game), always sending letters (in envelopes with stamps), always, well just always.


I loved the book, (exaggeration and hyperbole intended). It was like leaning into a casual conversation with a man who could be my father: experienced, well read, urbane, sophisticated, and pissed. If there is one theme throughout the book The Man Who Stayed (PAUL Dry, 175 pages GO HERE) it is loss. The loss of respect we have for each other, something that he has watched develop since the end of World War II. We are sloppier in dress and voice, we seemed to be more self-absorbed (really? Facebook?), our nose is buried in smartphones, we have lost the sense of adventure. We are acted on, we no longer act out.


But writing is his craft and one of my first books on writing was his, and On Writing Well is still one of the best. It is a comfortable mix of writing lectures, travelogues, and tips (he hated the term). The new edition has added “tips” on how a writer should live large to better understand their art, and how do deal with what the new piece they are writing is really about. What I particularly enjoy is the sense of real freedom he offers to writers, it is a book to be reread, often.


So your lesson today, students, is to add both books to your shelves. Read them, underline them, abuse them, reread them, and you will not only become a better writer but maybe a more enlightened person.

[Lkn99goodread · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid and enjoyable articles as always.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few weeks back, The Writer Who Stayed was recommended to me by two people. I figured there had to be something to this book, so I requested it at the library.

Author Zinsser was a very well respected newspaperman, writer, and speaker. He lived his entire life with a love of words and a wonder about the world and people which surrounded him.

This book was a collection of some of the stories that Zinsser wrote for a weekly blog called American Scholar. Much of the initial writing that Zinsser produced for this blog was basically regurgitated from earlier writing he had done. After pursuing this path a bit, he decided it would be best to write some new content by combining his personal experience and background juxtaposed with items found in pop culture and the arts. (Honestly, this new material is where I thought he shone brightest!)

I found the "voice" of Mr. Zinsser loud and clear through the pictures he painted. He was very efficient in his use of words, but you always understood his opinion on a topic!

This book was wholly comprised of blog entries, and a fair number of the stories that appeared in this book referenced the exact same events (often word for word). I found that frustrating, but it did not deter my enjoyment of the book; I just think that they didn't have the right editor looking through the treasure trove of his material to locate and showcase the "brightest and best" that he shared with the world.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Zinnser has been my writing hero since the day over fifteen years ago when I sat with his book, On Writing Well, and read it like a novel.

Zinnser continues to be pithy, succinct, and full of beautiful words that flow together and make you think you really did want to read about how plumbers are good role models for writers. ?. Yup, he will actually manage to fascinate you with that.

His advice for writing well is critical and practiacally free at just the price of the book:
Hold the Emotion- Don't set out to write heart-tugging memoir, No Proverbs Please- writing English as a second language. But make no mistake, Zinnser doesn't do "tips;"
"It's not that I don't have any; On Writing Well is full of what might be considered 'tips,' But that's not the point of the book. It's a book of craft principles that add up to what it means to be a better writer."

This book ends up being that too- an amazing anecdotal book that teaches me to write better but never actually gets around to the teaching part. In a good way.

[Dan Mccoig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a sucker for books about writers who write about writing. I have a bookshelf full of such volumes. Perhaps one of the finest of this genre is Stephen King's On Writing.

The Writer Who Stayed is a collection of previously published short pieces, all of which appeared in American Scholar.

It is a pick and choose sort of volume. The pieces are arranged thematically, e.g. memoir writing, travel writing, etc. The section I found most helpful was the section on the craft of writing. Also, Zinsser's rants on the misuse of perfectly good words are alway entertaining. Don't get him started on the use of "reach out" and "share." He disapproves of reach out as a synonym for call or contact or speak to. He disapproves of share as a synonym for tell. By the way, so do I.

[Elizabeth Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as a gift from a writing student and enjoyed many of these short essays, which first appeared as a column in The American Scholar. The collection is organized here in topical chapters: writing craft, technology, faraway places, etc. Zinsser is a polished writer with some interesting insights, but his perspective is that of a 90-year-old mostly looking back, and as another Amazon review noted, many of his subjects are from the mid-20th century: "Daniel Fuchs... Pauline Kael, Chick Young and "Blondie", Mitch Miller...Hall of Fame centerfielder Edd Roush, the Great American Songbook, and the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company." The book may feel too dated to readers who prefer contemporary non-fiction.

[Orion Tippens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book much, more so than his more popular book, "On Writing Well." Not so much for the retrospect and success Zinser shares with his readers, but for his observations on writing in our modern times. There is much contrast over time on writing, with tales shared on the expectations of established writers. This especially, in our age of hyperactive, formulaic tag-filled digital media versus past times when writers had more freedom. Zinsser does however, gives us an optimistic outlook for writing success through his own experiences and other admired writers. The underlying message I think is to write from the heart, of which every struggling writer can and should do.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Zinsser is the king of the short essay. These short musings were written for American Scholar magazine's website and are divided into sections on popular culture, writing (his book On Writing Well is a classic in the genre), technology, travel,and language. This is the perfect book to take to a doctor's appointment or to read whenever you have a short amount of time to kill. Many are humorous and his use of language is exquisite. I definitely will get more of his books to read; I look forward to delving into more of his sharp, compelling prose.

[Leonardo Etcheto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enchanting series of essays. A great view into an interesting mind. Since it is a collection of essays, it is an easy book to pick up, read for a little bit and then put down again. Mr. Zinsser sounds like a great teacher and a person that would be great to have a fun conversation with. Especially liked his stories on how to write and his experience as the son that did not go into the family business. Overall you get a sense of a warm heart and open mind that loves what he does.

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays written by William Zinsser, journalist and lifelong nonfiction writer. The essays were written weekly for the American Scholar. In this text he covers Culture and the Arts, the Craft of Writing, the Tech Age, Faraway Places, Language and Reverberations. I found the essays were nostalgic, informative, thoughtful and contemplative. I will be reading all of his books.............

[Doug Naquin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of short essays – taken from a biweekly blog -- by a long-time guru on writing and general observer of society. At 89, Zinsser’s observations are backed by life experience and the ability to communicate clearly and succinctly – the type of writing one doesn’t notice is so good because it lacks pretense. I finished the collection a smarter, or at least more aware, person without realizing I was improving myself.

[Rosy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this two and a half years ago, while traveling, and have only dipped into it when the time was right or I didn't have anything else to read. That fact does NOT reflect its worth!

Because of the high level of respect and admiration 'out there' that made me add this book to my list, it took me several of these essays to appreciate that this really is fine writing. Now that I have finally finished, I will definitely miss it.

[Two Readers in Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixed bag of blogs/essays for the American Scholar, from trivial Andy Rooney-esque grousing to deep insights about life and writing. The best essays are on the writing of memoirs, as should be expected as the author taught a class on that topic at the New School for years.

Favorite essays: "Looking for a Model" and "The Last of the Lone Wanderers."

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

58 essays in about 170 pages, most collected from "american scholar" magazine, where he was writing an essay a week in 2009. very smart dude, pleasant writing, interesting liberal views. good examples of "how" to write essays too.

[Tony Kliment]

Some bits interesting, some not so interesting.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of internet essays that cover everything from the state of poetry, origin of key phrases, helicopter parents and much more. Interesting and informative.

[LDuchess · Rating 5 out of 5]

short columns by Zinsser--great writer (author of "On Writing Well."

(May lend this to Sallie?)

[Sondra Eklund · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction...