Law Commons^™

E. B. White Could Nod Too: Thoughts Occasioned By Reading “Death Of A Pig”, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

This is an essay on grammar and writing, with extended consideration of the value of Strunk & White as a guide. Although the essay defends Strunk & White against several of that volume’s strongest critics, it also illustrates that even the best writers—and E. B. White was terrific, as was Antonin Scalia—sometimes make mistakes. (At great, perhaps excessive, length, the essay dissects a problematic passage in White’s “Death of a Pig.”) We should learn from those mistakes, not accept them as inevitable.