I read these early in 2016: fiction and nonfiction, high- and low-brow, more or less in this order. Part 1 is here. FLEMING, Ian. You Only Live Twice and The Spy…
Back in high school, I was taught that America's alliance with France was crucial for winning the Revolutionary War. Today's question: just what did the French contribute? King Louis XVI didn't love the…
On February 16, 1781, after a confrontation with Washington on the stairs at army headquarters, Hamilton resigned from the commander-in-chief's staff. He refused both Washington's apology and his father-in-law's plea to…
On testing Well, I turned to Ayer & Son, because they had as a slogan, “Keeping Everlastingly At It Brings Success.” … I met one of Ayer’s men. “Now,” I…
On length of copy To sum up: The longer your copy can hold people the more of them you will sell; and the more interesting your copy is, the longer…
On May 17, 1792, outside 68 Wall Street, twenty-four stockbrokers signed an document that established the New York Stock & Exchange Board. Since a buttonwood tree stood outside the building, the…
On headlines The purpose of the headline is to pick out people you can interest… What you have will interest certain people only and for certain reasons. You care only…
On getting the reader's attention The truth isn't the truth until people believe you, and they can't believe you if they don't know what you're saying, and they can't know…
February 2016 Gore Vidal, Burr: A Novel. Read it for the second in my series of posts on Hamilton: An American Musical. Vidal is a great storyteller, and who tells your story really…
On the goal of advertising Advertising says to people, “Here’s what we've got. Here’s what it will do for you. Here’s how to get it.” —Leo Burnett So Kennedy said to…