138 she “relied mainly on dashes”: R. W. Franklin, ed., The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), p. 10.
138 book review by Judith Thurman: “A New Reading of Emily Dickinson,” The New Yorker, Aug. 3, 2008, pp. 68–73.
139 Today, the entire archive: See www.edickinson.org.
142 “You must wait—you”: The Aspern Papers, in The Henry James Reader, ed. Leon Edel (New York: Scribner, 1965), p. 235.
143 “She was bad; but”: Henry James, Washington Square, in Edel, ed., The Henry James Reader, p. 89.
143 “Poor Catherine was conscious”: Ibid.
144 “You have taken up”: Ibid., pp. 86–87.
145 “Unable to visit Bruichladdich”: Kelefa Sanneh, “Spirit Guide,” The New Yorker, Feb. 11 and 18, 2013, p. 51.
146 Baker calls “dashtards”: Nicholson Baker, “The History of Punctuation,” in The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber (New York: Random House, 1996), quoted by Keith Houston in Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks (New York: W. W. Norton, 2013), p. 152.
146 “Gaffer! If you think”: Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1865; reprint, New York: Modern Library, 2002), p. 6.
Chapter 8: What’s Up with the Apostrophe?
147 “You would think that”: Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad (1869; reprint, New York: Signet Books/New American Library, 1966), p. 138.
148 “whether there would be life”: Gary Comer, “Before the Beginning and After,” available at http://www.contentedshopper.com/clothing.htm.
151 “The word or words that form”: United States Board on Geographic Names, “Principles, Policies, and Procedures: Domestic Geographic Names.” See http://geonames.usgs.gov/docs/pro_pol_pro.pdf.
152 “an apostrophe-eradication policy”: Barry Newman, “Theres a Question Mark Hanging over the Apostrophes Future,” Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2013.
152 “for some the possessive case”: Kitty Burns Florey, Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and the Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences (Brooklyn, NY: Melville House Publishing, 2006), p. 77. (I am grateful to Burns Florey for digesting Gertrude Stein, “Poetry and Grammar,” in Lectures in America.) 153 “to avoid ‘confusion’ ”: BBC News, “Apostrophe Ban on Devon Council’s New Street Names.” See http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-21795179.
153 “the thought of apostrophes”: Ibid.
Chapter 9: F*ck This Sh*t 161 the rapper Earl Sweatshirt: Kelefa Sanneh, “Where’s Earl?” The New Yorker, May 23, 2011, pp. 59–67.
161 “OMG Fucking Just Ran”: Twitter post by Tyler, the Creator (Tyler Okonma), Sanneh, May 23, 2011.
161 “there is khuy (‘cock’)”: See http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/05/vladimir-putins-four-dirty-words.html.
162 “The term mat itself”: Victor Erofeyev, “Dirty Words,” The New Yorker, Sept. 15, 2003, p. 42.
162 “the federal government could take”: Calvin Trillin, “U.S. Letter: Atlanta,” The New Yorker, Jan. 27, 1968, p. 102.
162 report about a merchant marine: John McPhee, “Looking for a Ship,” The New Yorker, March 26, 1990.
162 McPhee got his satisfaction: John McPhee, “Editors and Publisher,” The New Yorker, July 2, 2012, p. 34.
163 “I’ve put more curse words”: Booktalk Nation, Ian Frazier interviewed by Roy Blount Jr., December 6, 2012.
163 the phrase “bros before hos”: Ben McGrath, “Samba Soccer,” The New Yorker, Jan. 13, 2014, p. 50.
Chapter 10: Ballad of a Pencil Junkie 187 One of his principal sources: Logan (OH) Daily News, March 18, 1999.
187 “Nobody else does it”: “Local Man’s Collection of 2,393 Pencil Sharpeners on Display in His Museum,” Athens (OH) News, June 17, 2003.
Appendix
SOME BOOKS I HAVE FOUND PARTICULARLY HELPFUL
Theodore Bernstein, the great stylist of the New York Times, has given us three collections of his judgments on what’s fit to print: Miss Thistlebottom’s Hobgoblins: The Careful Writer’s Guide to the Taboos, Bugbears and Outmoded Rules of English Usage (Centro Books, 1971), Dos, Don’ts & Maybes of English Usage (Times Books, 1977), and The Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to English Usage (Atheneum, 1981). Authoritative, humane, and reassuring, Bernstein tells us, once and for all, that “none” is plural unless it means “not a single one.”
Claire Kehrwald Cook, Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing (Houghton Mifflin, 1985). A useful, concise manual with clear explanations and tips on (among other things) the difference between “further” and “farther,” “a while” and “awhile,” and “hanged” and “hung.”