Author. He penned the now-standard student and writers' guide "The Elements of Style." (1918). Since its republication by his former student, essayist and children's author E.B. White, in 1959, the book has sold more than 10 million copies in more than four editions. Professor of English at Cornell University, he earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Cincinnati in 1890 and his doctorate at Cornell in 1896. Studied at the Sorbonne and the Collège de France, then taught mathematics at Rose Polytechnical Institute in Terre Haute, Indiana before establishing himself at Cornell, where he taught English for 46 years. He compiled critical editions of Cynewulf's Juliana, several works of Dryden, James Fenimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans, and several Shakespearean plays. Also active in the Manuscript Club, where he met and mentored Elwyn Brooks (E.B.) White. Served as the literary consultant for the 1936 MGM film "Romeo and Juliet" where he was known as "the professor" for his constant garb of a three-piece suit and wire-rim glasses. Father of the noted musicologist Oliver Strunk. Retired from Cornell in 1937 and in 1945 suffered a mental breakdown, dying less than a year later at the Hudson River Psychiatric Institute in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Author. He penned the now-standard student and writers' guide "The Elements of Style." (1918). Since its republication by his former student, essayist and children's author E.B. White, in 1959, the book has sold more than 10 million copies in more than four editions. Professor of English at Cornell University, he earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Cincinnati in 1890 and his doctorate at Cornell in 1896. Studied at the Sorbonne and the Collège de France, then taught mathematics at Rose Polytechnical Institute in Terre Haute, Indiana before establishing himself at Cornell, where he taught English for 46 years. He compiled critical editions of Cynewulf's Juliana, several works of Dryden, James Fenimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans, and several Shakespearean plays. Also active in the Manuscript Club, where he met and mentored Elwyn Brooks (E.B.) White. Served as the literary consultant for the 1936 MGM film "Romeo and Juliet" where he was known as "the professor" for his constant garb of a three-piece suit and wire-rim glasses. Father of the noted musicologist Oliver Strunk. Retired from Cornell in 1937 and in 1945 suffered a mental breakdown, dying less than a year later at the Hudson River Psychiatric Institute in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Bio by: John Andrew Prime
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