Jacques Barzun: Difference between revisions

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Barzun has a strong interest in the tools and mechanics of writing and [[research]]. He edited the 1966 edition of ''Follett's Modern American Usage'', and is the author of books on [[literary genre|style]] (''Simple and Direct'', 1975), on the craft of [[editing]] and [[publishing]] (''On Writing, Editing, and Publishing'', 1971), and on [[research methods]] in [[history]] and [[humanities]] (''The Modern Researcher'', now in its 6th ed.)

Barzun does not disdain popular culture; his varied interests include [[sciencedetective fiction]] and [[detective fiction]]. He has written on the role of [[baseball]] in American culture. He edited, and wrote the introduction to, the 1961 anthology ''The Delights of Detection'', which included stories by [[G.K. Chesterton]], [[Dorothy Sayers]], [[Rex Stout]], and others. In 1971, he co-authored, with Wendell Hertig Taylor, ''A Catalogue of Crime: Being a Reader's Guide to the Literature of Mystery, Detection, & Related Genres'', for which he and Taylor received a Special [[Edgar Award]] from the [[Mystery Writers of America]] in 1972.

[[Image:From Dawn to Decadence.JPG|thumb|right|175px|''From Dawn to Decadence'' by Jacques Barzun]]

He has continued to write on education and cultural history since his retirement from Columbia. At 84 years of age, he began writing his [[swan song]], to which he devoted the better part of the 1990s. The resulting book of more than 800pp, ''From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present'', reveals a vast erudition and brilliance, undiminished by advanced age. Historians, literary critics, and popular reviewers all lauded ''From Dawn to Decadence'' as a sweeping and powerful, albeit idiosyncratic, survey of modern Western history, and it became a ''New York Times'' [[New York Times bestseller|bestseller]]. The book introduces several novel [[typographic]] devices that enable an unusually rich system of cross-referencing, as well as help keep its many strands of thought under organized control. Almost every page features a [[sidebar]] containing a pithy quotation from some author or historical figure; most are surprising, little known, and humorous.