NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWS
Good Prose is an inspiring book about writing--about the creation of
good prose--and the record of a warm and productive literary friendship.
The story begins in 1973, in the offices of The Atlantic Monthly, in
Boston, where a young freelance writer named Tracy Kidder came looking
for an assignment. Richard Todd was the editor who encouraged him. From
that article grew a lifelong association. Before long, Kidder's The
Soul of a New Machine, the first book the two worked on together, had
won the Pulitzer Prize. It was a heady moment, but for Kidder and Todd
it was only the beginning of an education in the art of nonfiction.
Good Prose explores three major nonfiction forms: narratives, essays,
and memoirs. Kidder and Todd draw candidly, sometimes comically, on
their own experience--their mistakes as well as accomplishments--to
demonstrate the pragmatic ways in which creative problems get solved.
They also turn to the works of a wide range of writers, novelists as
well as nonfiction writers, for models and instruction. They talk about
narrative strategies (and about how to find a story, sometimes in
surprising places), about the ethical challenges of nonfiction, and
about the realities of making a living as a writer. They offer some tart
and emphatic opinions on the current state of language. And they take a
clear stand against playing loose with the facts. Their advice is always
grounded in the practical world of writing and publishing.
Good Prose--like Strunk and White's *The Elements of Style--*is a
succinct, authoritative, and entertaining arbiter of standards in
contemporary writing, offering guidance for the professional writer and
the beginner alike. This wise and useful book is the perfect companion
for anyone who loves to read good books and longs to write one.
Praise for Good Prose
"Smart, lucid, and entertaining."--The Boston Globe
"You are in such good company--congenial, ironic, a bit old-school--that
you're happy to follow [Kidder and Todd] where they lead you."--The
Wall Street Journal
"[A] well-structured, to-the-point, genuinely useful, and fun-to-read
guide to writing narrative nonfiction, essays, and memoir . . . Crisp,
informative, and mind-expanding."**--Booklist **
"A gem . . . The finer points of creative nonfiction are molded into an
inspiring read that will affect the would-be writer as much as Anne
Lamott's Bird by Bird or Stephen King's On Writing. . . . This is a
must read for nonfiction writers."--Library Journal
"As approachable and applicable as any writing manual
available."--Associated Press
