Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Will the reader turn the page?

From A Heroine of Popular History by Bruce Cole. An article reviewing the writings of historian Barbara Tuchman.
The essays about writing in "Practicing History" are an invaluable and charming tutorial for those interested in learning the historian's craft. History students, especially those entering graduate study, would be well advised to steep themselves in her advice. For Tuchman, "being in love with your subject is indispensable for writing good history—or good anything for that matter." Transmitting the author's fascination with a subject, "the magic," is essential to captivating the reader. She quotes the sign that the popular historian Catherine Drinker Bowen had pinned over her desk: "Will the reader turn the page?"
I love that as a measure of authorial success: will the reader turn the page?

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