Next year, 2026, will be a Fowler year, just like this year is a Jane Austen year. In Henry Fowler‘s case, 100 years after the publication of his phenomenal Modern English Usage. So I’m looking for Fowler narratives, stories about the man and the book that wouldn’t normally go into a biography, of which I would definitely recommend the late Jenny McMorris’s Warden of English.

Of real interest would be Ben Yagoda’s article “The Autocrat of English Usage“, which appeared in The New Yorker a couple of weeks ago (you have to be a subscriber to be able to read it, which I am not so cannot unfortunately – but see comment below, with thanks to Matjaž Zgonc!).

There may well be more like this around, so do let me know! Also, let me have your Fowler narratives please – I’ll be terribly interested to read them.

Please note: for articles behind paywalls, this tool is recommended: https://www.smry.ai/ It is not really AI and it won’t simply generate summaries. It just removes the effects of the paywall most of the time.