The Elements of Style Illustrated—Behind the Book

"A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines or a machine no unnecessary part." Ah, the unsurpassed elegance and wit of the most famous writing manual ever written in English sounds every bit as commanding today as it did almost half a century ago. Based on Cornell professor William Strunk Jr.'s privately printed book, which his one-time student E.B. White revised and expanded after it had gone out of print in 1959, The Elements of Style has lived through several revisions since it was first published. Said by the New York Times to be "as timeless as a book can be in our age of volubility," the quirky manual has remained nothing short of an institution—a perfect "little book" that teaches every user of English, no matter what the age or profession, how to write with authority and style.

So now that it's been honed to perfection, what could anyone possibly wish to add to it? Enter Maira Kalman. An established illustrator of children's books, magazine covers for The New Yorker, and fabrics for fashion icons Isaac Mizrahi and Kate Spade Today, Kalman had a vision to breathe some new life into the classic text by enriching it with 57 illustrations. The result, The Elements of Style Illustrated (224p. ISBN 1-59420-069-6. $24.95), due out later this month, masterfully combines words and imagery to give a new direction to the way we learn grammar. We caught up with the busy illustrator via email to get the inside scoop.

The E.B. White Estate has named you the sole artist trusted to illustrate this book. You must feel a great sense of accomplishment.

My parents emigrated from little villages in Russia to Israel, where I was born. We moved to New York when I was a child. Now I am illustrating a classic book on the English language and speaking to the granddaughter of E.B. White and we are both having a very nice time.

What inspired the project?

I had never used the book in school and picked it up in a yard sale one summer four years ago. When I started reading I had an immediate and decisive vision of illustrating the book. It was so funny and smart and eccentric.

There coexists a fine balance between the text and the images. Was it a challenge to choose which phrases to illustrate?

I could have done three times the illustrations. There were so many appealing sentences and images to use, but I did not want to overload or overwhelm the book.

The images fully capture the book's off-beat elegance. Was this the main goal?

It is funny that this book is all about rules and yet there is an underlying theme that eventually you must break the rules to do anything unusual. This book was written by people who embrace eccentricity. I have great admiration for them. They are really like mad scientists.

I had many goals. One, to have fun. And after that many other things come into play. Imagination. Love of language and words. The need to express yourself in the best way possible. The confusion of all of that. It is a wonder.

Describe your thought process. For example, what inspired the image with the dog ("Well, Susan, this is a fine mess you are in")?

My very poor attention span allows me to jump from thing to thing with childish abandon. I chose the sentences only on the basis of what I liked. But once I narrowed down my choices, I wanted to be literal and true to the sentence. So, for instance, for the phrase "The temple of Isis" [see image, far left] I found images of the actual temple, which is on a small island on the Nile and rendered it with some characters sprinkled in. I tried to do this as often as possible. A reasoned madness.

The basset hound [near left] is based on a photograph that my sister gave me. I have a dog and I so often say that. And you might not know who is in a mess, the dog or the person the dog is looking at. Along with the literal images, I found the freedom to incorporate the wonderful and absurd images that I collect as I travel through my day. "Polly loves cake more than she loves me" is a Gainsborough painting. The boy with the box on his head is my son. So it goes.

What are your favorite illustrations?

The portrait of Pina Bausch ("Do you mind my asking a question?") is a great favorite. I love Pina Bausch and how her work jumps from dance to music to costume to great imagery.

Any aspiration to illustrate another book?

This was a gift from the gods. I will have to wait for some great moment of serendipity.