William Strunk Jr. was an American academic and educator who spent his career fostering a deep appreciation for the English language. Born in 1869, he served as a professor of English at Cornell University, where he dedicated himself to teaching composition and literature to generations of students.
Strunk is best remembered as the original author of The Elements of Style, a concise guide to writing that he privately published in 1918 for his classes. The manual was designed to cut through rhetorical excess, famously urging writers to make every word tell. It outlined fundamental rules of usage and principles of composition, emphasizing clarity, directness, and active verbs.
Though initially intended for a local academic audience, the guide achieved monumental success decades later. In the late 1950s, E. B. White, an accomplished author and former student of Strunk, revised and expanded the original text. This collaborative legacy, colloquially known as "Strunk & White," became one of the most influential and widely read style guides in the English language, continuing to shape the writing habits of students and professionals long after Strunk's death in 1946.
