“Dear Mr. Whitworth/Dear Professor Fox”: Ode to an Editor and to Editing

Although in the course of my long academic career I had published eight books and many articles and essays, it was not until I became involved in writing an autobiographical account of my life as a sociologist that I had the experience of working intensively with a personal editor. From time to time I had wistfully, and rather romantically, wondered what it would be like to have an editor like the most fortunate of real writers do: an editor who had a close relationship to my manuscript, to the creative process by which it was coming into being, and to me; who understood my intentions; who was both critical and empathic; and who was endowed with the technical skill, the artistry, and the discernment to know what to do, and not to do, to make my writing better. Adapted from the source document.