Mary Norris
Mary Norris began working at The New Yorker in 1978 and was a query proofreader at the magazine for twenty-four years. She has written for Talk of the Town and for newyorker.com, and she is the author of “Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen” (2015) and “Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen” (2019).
A Musical for—and About—Grammar Sticklers
“The Angry Grammarian” asks whether two lovebirds can overcome differing opinions on the Oxford comma.
The Edith Hamilton Way
A new biography provides a glimpse into the life of the celebrated classicist.
The Editor Who Edited Salinger
The personal archive of Gus Lobrano, a longtime editor at The New Yorker, provides a glimpse of a vanished literary past.
How I Spent My Summer Vacation
I went to Seoul and visited a library that has a set of bound volumes of The New Yorker.
My Last Visit with John Bennet
The longtime New Yorker editor learned in early June that he had pancreatic cancer.
The Dance Between Editor and Writer in “Turn Every Page”
A new film about Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb is a rare window into a relationship that usually goes undocumented.
How to Use (or Not Use) a Hyphen
Plus: a brief digression into why The New Yorker hyphenates “teen-ager.”
A Linguistic Look at Omicron
What is this penchant for using Greek to designate disasters?
Grammar-Nerd Heaven
A new exhibit showcases the surprisingly contentious history of English grammar books.
The Archives of an Unfulfilled Genius
Edward Stringham was a collator at The New Yorker for forty years. Was he trying to collate the world?
Stet!, the Hot New Language Game
A card game based on “Dreyer’s English” and other matters of grammatical interest.
The Epic Poem You Need for Quarantine
A multimedia forty-day reading of Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
“A Way with Words” Is “Car Talk” for Lexiphiles
Scouting for words to talk about is a constant effort, but it comes naturally to the radio show’s co-hosts, a writer in love with so-called dead languages and a linguist with an ear for contemporary slang.
Coronavirus-Quarantine Diary: Counting the Dead
Jacqueline Dupree, who works at the Washington Post, took a breather from counting coronavirus statistics last week to mark her own personal catastrophe: the death of her husband, three years earlier.
There’s a Lot More to E. Jean Carroll’s Book than Trump
“What Do We Need Men For?” has come to be defined by the advice columnist’s accusation of sexual assault against the President, but the book is also a work of comic genius.
Milk: It Does an Impeachment Good
The patrician leaders of our fifty states nominated milk to be one of the official beverages of Donald Trump’s Senate trial. It may be surprisingly fitting.
An Instant Classic About Learning Ancient Greek
With “La Lingua Geniale,” Andrea Marcolongo did something I had very much wanted to do: she wrote about classical Greek while young and freshly enamored of the beauty, economy, and subtlety of the language.
“Arrogate” and Other Pesky Impeachment Words
The hearings leading to the articles of impeachment also introduced a few proper nouns that cannot be found in the dictionary.
A Quid-Pro-Quo Mystery
How did the Latin term come to be used as a synonym for criminality?
A Musical for—and About—Grammar Sticklers
“The Angry Grammarian” asks whether two lovebirds can overcome differing opinions on the Oxford comma.
The Edith Hamilton Way
A new biography provides a glimpse into the life of the celebrated classicist.
The Editor Who Edited Salinger
The personal archive of Gus Lobrano, a longtime editor at The New Yorker, provides a glimpse of a vanished literary past.
How I Spent My Summer Vacation
I went to Seoul and visited a library that has a set of bound volumes of The New Yorker.
My Last Visit with John Bennet
The longtime New Yorker editor learned in early June that he had pancreatic cancer.
The Dance Between Editor and Writer in “Turn Every Page”
A new film about Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb is a rare window into a relationship that usually goes undocumented.
How to Use (or Not Use) a Hyphen
Plus: a brief digression into why The New Yorker hyphenates “teen-ager.”
A Linguistic Look at Omicron
What is this penchant for using Greek to designate disasters?
Grammar-Nerd Heaven
A new exhibit showcases the surprisingly contentious history of English grammar books.
The Archives of an Unfulfilled Genius
Edward Stringham was a collator at The New Yorker for forty years. Was he trying to collate the world?
Stet!, the Hot New Language Game
A card game based on “Dreyer’s English” and other matters of grammatical interest.
The Epic Poem You Need for Quarantine
A multimedia forty-day reading of Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
“A Way with Words” Is “Car Talk” for Lexiphiles
Scouting for words to talk about is a constant effort, but it comes naturally to the radio show’s co-hosts, a writer in love with so-called dead languages and a linguist with an ear for contemporary slang.
Coronavirus-Quarantine Diary: Counting the Dead
Jacqueline Dupree, who works at the Washington Post, took a breather from counting coronavirus statistics last week to mark her own personal catastrophe: the death of her husband, three years earlier.
There’s a Lot More to E. Jean Carroll’s Book than Trump
“What Do We Need Men For?” has come to be defined by the advice columnist’s accusation of sexual assault against the President, but the book is also a work of comic genius.
Milk: It Does an Impeachment Good
The patrician leaders of our fifty states nominated milk to be one of the official beverages of Donald Trump’s Senate trial. It may be surprisingly fitting.
An Instant Classic About Learning Ancient Greek
With “La Lingua Geniale,” Andrea Marcolongo did something I had very much wanted to do: she wrote about classical Greek while young and freshly enamored of the beauty, economy, and subtlety of the language.
“Arrogate” and Other Pesky Impeachment Words
The hearings leading to the articles of impeachment also introduced a few proper nouns that cannot be found in the dictionary.
A Quid-Pro-Quo Mystery
How did the Latin term come to be used as a synonym for criminality?