Mary Norris - Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen

Mary Norris began her professional career as a foot checker—dutifully checking patrons’ toes for athlete’s foot as they entered a Cleveland city pool—before working at a costume company and driving a milk truck. Humble beginnings for a woman who would come to spend more than three decades as a copy editor (or “prose goddess”) at The New Yorker, where she’s worked with such celebrated writers as Philip Roth, Pauline Kael, and George Saunders. Norris’s love of language, and her wish to help “all of you who want to feel better about your grammar,” led her to write Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, a hilarious, down-to-earth manual for untangling the most vexing spelling, punctuation, and usage quandaries in English. With her vivacity and singular wit, Norris clearly addresses the most ubiquitous issues in modern usage: Is it “who” or “whom”? “That” or “which”? Is it “traveler” or “traveller,” and which dictionary authority should you trust? When is it OK to use the F-word in print? Why is the semicolon considered “upper-crust”? And are we losing the apostrophe?

Mary Norris began working at The New Yorker in 1978. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, she lives in New York. This is her first book.

 

Location: 

1 Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA 94111
Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen By Mary Norris Cover Image
$28.00
Email or call for price
ISBN: 9780393240184
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - April 6th, 2015