Bryan A. Garner Interview |
Posted August 2009 |
How did you decide to become an author?
It was a gradual thing. At the age of seven, I fell in love with books on natural history and started reading chapters into a tape recorder, thinking I'd remember things better and preserve the knowledge. At 15, I started a vocabulary notebook, with hundreds of pages of handwritten notes on words I wanted to memorize.
And at 22, I started law school and began writing A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage (later published by Oxford University Press), which I named and began writing during my very first week of law school. At the time, it seemed to me like the most natural undertaking in the world.
What would you be doing today if you weren't a lawyer and lexicographer?
I'd be a paleontologist, a law librarian, or a backup flutist for Jethro Tull. You decide.
Do you consider yourself primarily a lexicographer?
No. I'm primarily a teacher.
Through LawProse, Inc., I spend more than 110 days each year teaching six-hour seminars for lawyers and judges. The teaching is a byproduct of the writing. I suppose I consider myself, in equal measure, a teacher, a writer, a lexicographer, and a student. I'm a perpetual student.
How did it come about that West asked you to take over Black's Law Dictionary?
It's a surprising story. The West editors who approached me in 1994 didn't even know that I was already a legal lexicographer, much less that I'd written A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage – even though that book received favorable attention when it first appeared in 1987.
They came to me because of my work as style consultant to the United States Judicial Conference. They had heard that a guy down in Texas had been sought out to revise the various sets of federal rules, and they therefore called me about revising Black's Law Dictionary. I was flattered by the call, and we soon met to discuss the project.
In 1994, West was my deus ex machina. The company bought me a ThinkPad, and within 18 months I was able to deliver the pocket edition of Black's, which to this day remains the best-selling version of the book.
How was it to work with Justice Scalia on Making Your Case?
It was the experience of a lifetime – indescribably rewarding. I hadn't expected to make such a wonderful friend in that joint project, but from the very beginning we enjoyed each other's company. We're both stylists, and we're both persnickety, and we found ourselves constantly pressing each other toward an even better way of phrasing each thought. The casual reader will hardly understand just how much toil and trouble went into every single paragraph. But isn't that true of any piece of skillful work?
What advice do you have for other authors?
Before you write, feel comfortable that you've canvassed the literature – that is, if you care to write something important and lasting. Many authors fail here in the most elementary ways, venturing into book projects when they haven't had even the faintest glimpse of the existing literature. They tend to write idiosyncratic books that are soon forgotten.
What are you working on now?
It's a really exciting project, but I must let it ripen first. OK?