William Zinsser died today. He was 92, so no great shock, I guess.  And his legacy lives on in books, articles and even blogs, so we can’t even say he’s really gone.

Even so, as soon as I stumbled across the news via FB, I hunted through my Seattle bookshelves trying to find my tattered, old-style paperback of “On Writing Well.” Not there. It must be in my office at Mizzou. I hate not finding books when and where I want them. I’m tempted to order an updated version from Amazon, despite my ambivalence about that big-footed behemoth and my links here to the same. It could be in my hands tomorrow, and I could sink into my red leather reading chair to immerse into Zinsser’s wisdom – wisdom he set down so clearly and that I seem to forget every time I write.

I also made a note to put his book on my syllabus for next year’s writing class. I’m certain it was on mine in college yo these 40 years ago. As was Strunk & White’s “Elements of Style.” As is now Roy Peter Clark’s “Writing Tools” and Constance Hale’s “Sin and Syntax” and others I find both foundational and inspirational.

But for now, I sent the below to students from the writing class I just finished. (OK, I’m not really finished. I have whittled down 230,000 words of student stories and posts in the last 10 days to about 15,000. They could use some of Zinsser’s lessons on leanness. As could I as I onder this post with Zinsser’s eye to tighter, leaner, clearer and, as a result, more elegant.

To my Baby Js:

Do read this obit for master writing guru William Zinsser. If you feel you don’t have time, at least read the first half about his work.

You’ll discover:

• He didn’t find his “writer’s voice” until he was in his 50s.
• He found himself fascinated by topics he had no prior interest in because he was drawn in by the vitality of the writer writing about those topics.
• He felt a writer’s joy showed in the writing.
• He found his way in a rocky financial world of work from newspapers to freelancing to teaching. But he kept writing. And learning about writing.
• He believed clarity was the ultimate test of elegant writing.

If you’ve never read “On Writing Well,” buy yourself one as an end-of-semester gift. Then read it every year for the rest of your reader/writer lives.