Bryan Garner (1)

Essential for fans of Bryan Garner and near-essential for fans of David Wallace, Quack This Way is a short but fascinating transcript of a dialog about language and usage between two of the best modern practitioners. Gardner and Wallace became friendly after Wallace's essay "Tense Present," an extended essay and review of Gardner's Modern American Usage, was published in the Atlantic. Wallace's views on English and on the teaching of English to young writers, although expressed off the cuff, are cogent and worthy of study. Gardner's introduction to this volume is a poignant history of their correspondence and friendship.… (mer)