Sylvia Townsend Warner counted herself very lucky to have William Maxwell as her New Yorker editor and readers of this volume of their correspondence would agree Warner wrote 153 stories between 1936 and 1977 and found a devoted and discering fan in Maxwell. Many of the letters deal with both Warner's and Maxwell's writing. On occasion Maxwell has to gracefully reject one of Warner's stories (usually with the reassurance that the story is wonderful "but not for The New Yorker"). But what the reader comes to appreciate are the writers' accounts of momentous occasions and everyday life. Maxwell gives us wonderful accounts of an Adlai Stevenson rally and the Vietnam Moratorium. His account of the NYC blackout (in a letter dated November 17, 1965)is one of the best things I've ever read and worth the price of the book. It's such a seamless piece of writing, with each detail depending on what came before, that to quote bits of it would be to trivialize it.
Maxwell, who lived with his wife and two daughters in NYC, is also good with domestic detail and affecting and funny observations. He relates a conversation in which his small daughter laments that he is bald."'Would you trade me in for a daddy with more hair?'" 'Yes," she says, teaching me a lesson."
And on his resuming piano lessons in middle age: ". . .And Mozart is sustaining though I cannot do it. I would rather not be able to do Mozart than any composer I can think of."
Townsend who lived in England with her companion, Valentine Ackland offers a number of home remedies for illness, my favorite being champagne for any ailment above the waist, brandy for anything below. And she writes with droll humor of her life in an English village: "Poor Niou (a Siamese cat) has just had her first affair of the heart, and of course it was a tragedy. As a rule he flies from strange men, cursing under his breath, and keeping very low to the ground. Yesterday an electrician came; a grave mackintoshed man, but to Niou all that was romantic and lovely. He gazed at him, he rubbed against him, he lay in an ecstasy on the tool-bag. The electrician felt much the same, and gave him little washers to play with. He said he would come again today to to finish off properly. Niou understands everything awaited him in dreamy transports and practising his best and most amorous squint. The electrician came, Niou was waiting him on the windowsill. A paroxysm of stage-fright came over him, and he rushed into the garden and disappeared.
He'll get over it in time; but just now he's terribly downcast."
The volume is filled with fine writing and the reader wants very much to know these two people personally.

This book about writing is a practical guide for mostly high school and college students. It is for helping struggling students in high school or college to develop ideas, organize the ideas, improve style, edit, and mastering mechanics. The book is divided into seven subtopics: prewriting, freewriting, rewriting, style, mechanics, formal writing, and conclusion. The book is mostly "how-to write." Thus there is not much philosophy being discussed. In "prewriting," the author emphasizes clustering and outlining. In "freewriting," unhindered writing is advised. In "rewriting," the author stresses organization. In "style," clear and concise words are suggested. "Mechanics" deals with spelling, punctuation, and syntax. "Formal writing" deals thoroughly with applying the above techniques to formality. The writer seems to emphasize following good authors in their techniques - each section begins in a quote from a writer.

This particular quote was significant to me: "Take an overall look at what you've clustered. Some of it may not make sense. That's okay. Wisdom has nothing to do with logic." I agree with the author about clustering. One must freely write down everything that comes to mind when prewriting. If one holds something back in the mind, one will not be able to brainstorm well. Clustering is vital.

From this book, not only have I absorbed ample concepts that I am not aware of, I have refreshed my memory on some topics I already knew. In "style", Steinmann states that one should form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's. This shows that a noun is owned by another noun. Placing a comma before a conjunction introducing an independent clause. If there is a comma placed in the middle of a sentence before a word, such as and or but, there are two separate clauses in that sentence. When the comma is reached the second clause has the appearance of an after-thought. One should be careful on the rule because if there is not an and or but then the comma should be a semicolon. Steimann also emphasizes that readers to keep the writing in one tense because the reader may get confused if the writer keeps going to past to present or even future. The author also says that you should place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end. It is necessary because it makes the prominent position more emphatic if it is before the emphatic word.

I thought that this book was a very good guide to the "art of writing". It gave many examples and explained every possible subject. It should be greatly useful for teenage students or any budding writer.

This is a useful book, packed with information but written in a somewhat choppy manner. Additionally the unfortunately "cute" chapter headings and overall humorous tone of the book detract somewhat from the importance of the text.

Although this is information is now a few years old, I can only imagine that things haven't changed. This book gives quite a bit of insight on how disgusting corporate drug, chemical, and even cosmetic companies are and the harmful, un-renewable resources they abuse. Not to mention beneficial advice on the importance of organic ingredients and whole foods. This book scared me enough to keep me away from fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy products that are maintained with pesticides. I am more aware in many ways because of this book, however is does leave me with some unanswered questions.

I learned a great deal reading this book. The authors presented the information in a very easy format to understand and I found myself learning the things I wanted to learn very quickly. Best of all they give great resources to order products and learn more. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about the toxins in our life and how to avoid them.

I was extremely disappointed after seeing this book thinking it was the the Arthritis Cure, which was written a year earlier. It's not, only a cheap imitation which appears to try and capatilize on the success of the 1997 book. Even the font used on the cover of Doctor's Cure is a blatent copy. Shame on you!

This book so hot!!! Couldn't put it down until I read it cover to cover! Uses safe,natural non- prescription disease-modifing medication easily available in the nutritional supplement section of most any retail grocery store, down the isle from the aspirin. Because it is safe without any drug interaction whatsoever may use without advise from their doctor, it is that safe. This book provides the resource section with names of organizations who are familar with this supplement who will be of help to you in the healing process of Arthritis. Yes, healing process rather than todays conventional painkiller approach using drugs, therapies which can be harmful and costly. Using diet, what foods can trigger arthritis- like beef and dairy, cured meats, preservatives,wheat,corn, to name a fewcommon triggers in some patients. This is healing using the bodys own natural healing powers promoting a longer and more healthy life. The key to arthritis suffers to relieve pain and stimulate joint re-generation in a completely safe natural way without drugs or surgery. This book gives a wealth of references as well as resources to dedicated doctors who teach thier patients how to heal and stay healthy. I particularly enjoyed the shoppers guide to healthy joints and bones. Using old fashioned natural health strategy-exercise-no gyms,no special equipment just good endorphine release.This is the bodys natural morphine-like substance giving you all benefits of natural healing powers of the body without side effects of drugs.This group of physicians and educators realize arthritis,especially osteoarthritis,and rheumatoid arthritis suffers deserve healing nutrients to heal and have healthy independence and the freedom from potentially dangerous treatments and drugs cited. These physcians have helped thousands of arthritis patients over the years regain their health. This book will change your life as it has changed real life cases of patients included inside these pages stories of rejuvenation using the bodys own healing powers. This is the book of the year for every arthritis sufferer.