Letter to the Editor

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Creative Editing

“Dear Sonny, The copy-edited text of A Turn in the South came yesterday; it is such an appalling piece of work that I feel I have to write about it. This kind of copy-editing gets in the way of creative reading. I spend so much time restoring the text I wrote (and as a result know rather well). I thought it might have been known in the office that after 34 years and 20 books I knew certain things about writing and didn’t want a copy-editor’s help with punctuation or the thing called repetition . . . .” 

—V.S. Naipaul, Nobel Prize-winning author, in letter to his publisher over an overzealous copy editor, “Every writer has his own voice,” Letters of Note, 1988

• Editorial Comment: Um, stet?


PeezPix by Ted Pease

After the Rain












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“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
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