William Zinsser

William Knowlton Zinsser (1922–2015) was an American writer, editor, and teacher, best known as the author of On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, a widely used style guide that has sold over a million copies and become a standard reference for clear, concise nonfiction prose. A fourth‑generation New Yorker born in New York City, he began his career at the New York Herald Tribune in 1946, where he worked as a feature writer, drama editor, film critic, and editorial writer before becoming a longtime freelance contributor to leading magazines.

Over his career, Zinsser wrote well over a dozen books on subjects ranging from writing and education to music, baseball, and American travel, including Writing to Learn, Mitchell & Ruff, Spring Training, American Places, Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs, and Writing About Your Life. In the 1970s he taught nonfiction writing at Yale University, where he served as master of Branford College and edited Yale Alumni Magazine, and later taught at The New School and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York. He died in New York City on May 12, 2015, at the age of 92.