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John Richards, bulwark for the apostrophe against grammatical 'barbarians,' dies at 97
Hat tip, a letter on the LTTE page in this morning's Washington Post. The real one, the one made with dead trees. Or is that from dead trees?
Letters to the Editor
Opinion: Readers critique The Post: This cartoon needed 1,000 words to explain it
May 14, 2021 at 10:30 a.m. EDT
Every week, The Post runs a collection of letters of readers’ grievances — pointing out grammatical mistakes, missing coverage and inconsistencies. These letters tell us what we did wrong and, occasionally, offer praise. Here, we present this week’s Free for All letters.
{snip}
●
Raising 'Kane'
Regarding the April 30 Style article “ ‘Rosebud’? Nah, a bear has the last word.”:
The recent discovery of a review that panned the classic film “Citizen Kane” by a pseudonymous reviewer from the Chicago Tribune deserves further probing for a possible motive. Yes, “Citizen Kane” was a cinematic roman à clef for newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, but according to writer-director Orson Welles and others, it was a synthesis of many prominent men, among them two members of the influential Chicago McCormick family: Harold, chairman of the board of the International Harvester Co., and Robert R., publisher of the Chicago Tribune.
Welles claimed that the famous scene in which Kane forces his second wife, a terrible singer, to sing the prima role in an opera he promoted was based on Harold McCormick’s effort to stage an opera featuring his second wife, Polish opera star Ganna Walska, renowned for being a lousy singer.
Perhaps Tribune film critic “Mae Tinee” was attempting to curry favor with her publisher, Robert McCormick.
Otts Laupus, Elkridge
{snip}
●
Apostrophe appreciation abounds
I read the April 29 obituary for John Richards, “Newspaperman was possessed by an elemental urge to protect the apostrophe” [Metro], with a mixture of interest, amusement and regret — regret that I missed an opportunity to serve the Apostrophe Protection Society as a (probably underqualified but willing) volunteer. Although I’m (I am) not, strictly speaking, a writer, my profession involves a great deal of writing, and I have long endeavored to use correct grammar and punctuation.
My own most-loathed misuse of the apostrophe is the possessive form of “it,” as in, “Look at that bird. It’s feathers are yellow.” I’ve (I have) lost count of how many times I’ve (ditto) seen this egregious error, often in professional publications. I’ll (I will) think of Richards the next time I see one. It’s (it is), I think, a fitting way to honor his memory.
Roger Fradenburgh, Harvard, Mass.
●
{snip}
Opinion: Readers critique The Post: This cartoon needed 1,000 words to explain it
May 14, 2021 at 10:30 a.m. EDT
Every week, The Post runs a collection of letters of readers’ grievances — pointing out grammatical mistakes, missing coverage and inconsistencies. These letters tell us what we did wrong and, occasionally, offer praise. Here, we present this week’s Free for All letters.
{snip}
●
Raising 'Kane'
Regarding the April 30 Style article “ ‘Rosebud’? Nah, a bear has the last word.”:
The recent discovery of a review that panned the classic film “Citizen Kane” by a pseudonymous reviewer from the Chicago Tribune deserves further probing for a possible motive. Yes, “Citizen Kane” was a cinematic roman à clef for newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, but according to writer-director Orson Welles and others, it was a synthesis of many prominent men, among them two members of the influential Chicago McCormick family: Harold, chairman of the board of the International Harvester Co., and Robert R., publisher of the Chicago Tribune.
Welles claimed that the famous scene in which Kane forces his second wife, a terrible singer, to sing the prima role in an opera he promoted was based on Harold McCormick’s effort to stage an opera featuring his second wife, Polish opera star Ganna Walska, renowned for being a lousy singer.
Perhaps Tribune film critic “Mae Tinee” was attempting to curry favor with her publisher, Robert McCormick.
Otts Laupus, Elkridge
{snip}
●
Apostrophe appreciation abounds
I read the April 29 obituary for John Richards, “Newspaperman was possessed by an elemental urge to protect the apostrophe” [Metro], with a mixture of interest, amusement and regret — regret that I missed an opportunity to serve the Apostrophe Protection Society as a (probably underqualified but willing) volunteer. Although I’m (I am) not, strictly speaking, a writer, my profession involves a great deal of writing, and I have long endeavored to use correct grammar and punctuation.
My own most-loathed misuse of the apostrophe is the possessive form of “it,” as in, “Look at that bird. It’s feathers are yellow.” I’ve (I have) lost count of how many times I’ve (ditto) seen this egregious error, often in professional publications. I’ll (I will) think of Richards the next time I see one. It’s (it is), I think, a fitting way to honor his memory.
Roger Fradenburgh, Harvard, Mass.
●
{snip}
Obituaries
John Richards, bulwark for the apostrophe against grammatical ‘barbarians,’ dies at 97
By Emily Langer
April 25, 2021 at 11:09 a.m. EDT
John Richards, a British newspaperman who attracted a flurry of international attention when he founded and later resignedly disbanded the Apostrophe Protection Society, a self-styled bulwark against the “barbarians” laying waste to a humble yet essential element of the English language, died March 30 at a hospital in Boston, a town in Lincolnshire, England. He was 97.
The cause was sepsis, said his son, Stephen Richards. Mr. Richards’s death — even some copy editors might disagree on the preferred possessive form of his surname, whether “Richards’s” or “Richards’ ” — was previously reported in publications including the Boston Standard and the Lincolnite of Lincolnshire.
In the universe of grammatical gadflies — a mantle many of them wear proudly — Mr. Richards represented a particularly committed species. A retired journalist, he spent 35 years working for regional newspapers in England, mainly as a reporter. But he also did a stint as a copy editor, purging copy of misspellings, grammatical slip-ups and errors of usage.
Even the most charitable editor can change “flaunt” to “flout” and “pour over” to “pore over” only so many times before exasperation sets in. By the end of his career, Mr. Richards was “fed up with correcting reporters’ copy” and told the Wall Street Journal that he “decided to do something” about a common and especially vexing category of error.
In 2001, he founded the Apostrophe Protection Society. The name of his association reflected his view of the tiny punctuation mark as a “poor defenseless creature,” its very existence in danger as technology increasingly encouraged speed over grammatical precision and the English-speaking population sank, in the view of the most curmudgeonly sticklers, into a disgraceful form of semi-literacy.
[A former copy editor fought to defend the apostrophe. Now he admits ‘ignorance and laziness’ have won.]
At first, the society’s ranks consisted of Mr. Richards and his son. But when the Daily Telegraph published an article about their quest, Mr. Richards said he received 500 letters from across the United Kingdom and around the world — including from the United States, the erstwhile colonies where, according to many Britons, the English language had been assailed nearly beyond recognition.
{snip}
{snip}
Read more Washington Post obituaries
By Emily Langer
Emily Langer is a reporter on The Washington Post’s obituaries desk. She writes about extraordinary lives in national and international affairs, science and the arts, sports, culture, and beyond. She previously worked for the Outlook and Local Living sections. Twitter https://twitter.com/emilylangerWP
John Richards, bulwark for the apostrophe against grammatical ‘barbarians,’ dies at 97
By Emily Langer
April 25, 2021 at 11:09 a.m. EDT
John Richards, a British newspaperman who attracted a flurry of international attention when he founded and later resignedly disbanded the Apostrophe Protection Society, a self-styled bulwark against the “barbarians” laying waste to a humble yet essential element of the English language, died March 30 at a hospital in Boston, a town in Lincolnshire, England. He was 97.
The cause was sepsis, said his son, Stephen Richards. Mr. Richards’s death — even some copy editors might disagree on the preferred possessive form of his surname, whether “Richards’s” or “Richards’ ” — was previously reported in publications including the Boston Standard and the Lincolnite of Lincolnshire.
In the universe of grammatical gadflies — a mantle many of them wear proudly — Mr. Richards represented a particularly committed species. A retired journalist, he spent 35 years working for regional newspapers in England, mainly as a reporter. But he also did a stint as a copy editor, purging copy of misspellings, grammatical slip-ups and errors of usage.
Even the most charitable editor can change “flaunt” to “flout” and “pour over” to “pore over” only so many times before exasperation sets in. By the end of his career, Mr. Richards was “fed up with correcting reporters’ copy” and told the Wall Street Journal that he “decided to do something” about a common and especially vexing category of error.
In 2001, he founded the Apostrophe Protection Society. The name of his association reflected his view of the tiny punctuation mark as a “poor defenseless creature,” its very existence in danger as technology increasingly encouraged speed over grammatical precision and the English-speaking population sank, in the view of the most curmudgeonly sticklers, into a disgraceful form of semi-literacy.
[A former copy editor fought to defend the apostrophe. Now he admits ‘ignorance and laziness’ have won.]
At first, the society’s ranks consisted of Mr. Richards and his son. But when the Daily Telegraph published an article about their quest, Mr. Richards said he received 500 letters from across the United Kingdom and around the world — including from the United States, the erstwhile colonies where, according to many Britons, the English language had been assailed nearly beyond recognition.
{snip}
{snip}
Read more Washington Post obituaries
By Emily Langer
Emily Langer is a reporter on The Washington Post’s obituaries desk. She writes about extraordinary lives in national and international affairs, science and the arts, sports, culture, and beyond. She previously worked for the Outlook and Local Living sections. Twitter https://twitter.com/emilylangerWP
7 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
I wish I could do better with my grammar. 🤔
R-I-P ... Mr. Richards
