William Zinsser

For the Major League Baseball pitcher and scout, see Bill Zinser.

William Knowlton Zinsser (October 7, 1922 – May 12, 2015) was 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 was a longtime contributor to leading magazines.

Early life and family

Zinsser attended Buckley Country Day School class of 1936 and Deerfield Academy for high school. Zinsser is a graduate of Princeton University. He married Carolyn Fraser Zinsser and they had two children, including John Zinsser, a prominent painter. The Zinssers lived in Manhattan and in Niantic, Connecticut. One of his cousins married Konrad Adenauer; another was the spouse of John J. McCloy; Zinnser wrote "So it happened that the two men who collaborated most closely on the creation of the new Germany were Zinsser relatives."

Professional background

Throughout the 1970s, Zinsser taught writing at Yale University, where he was the fifth master of Branford College (1973–1979). He served as executive editor of the Book-of-the-Month Club from 1979 to 1987. He lived in New York City. He retired from teaching at The New School and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism because his glaucoma had advanced.

His 18 books include On Writing Well, which is in the seventh edition; Writing to Learn; Writing with a Word Processor; Mitchell & Ruff (originally published as Willie and Dwike); Spring Training; American Places; Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs; Writing About Your Life; and most recently, Writing Places, an autobiography. The American Scholar ran William Zinsser's weekly web posting, "Zinsser on Friday," featuring his short essays on writing, the arts, and popular culture.

In his books, Zinsser emphasizes the word "economy". Author James J. Kilpatrick, in his book The Writer's Art says that if he were limited to just one book on how to write, it would be William Zinsser's On Writing Well. He adds, "Zinsser's sound theory is that 'writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it."

Zinsser interviewed Woody Allen in 1963 for the Saturday Evening Post. After a chance encounter in 1980, Allen cast Zinsser, a Protestant, in a small role as a Catholic priest in his film Stardust Memories.

Death

Zinsser died at the age of 92 in Manhattan on May 12, 2015.

Further reading

• Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2006. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000023043

External links

• Official website
• William Zinsser at the Internet Movie Database
• NYU's Fales Library Guide to the William Zinsser Papers