Virtual Memories Show 604:
Benjamin Dreyer
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“When I started the book, what I was doing was trying to replicate everything that I’ve ever read in somebody else’s style manual into my own voice. I realized a) ‘No, you don’t,’ and b) ‘What is your voice anyway?'”
Benjamin Dreyer joins the show to talk about the joy of good writing. We talk about his career as managing editor and copy chief of the Random House, his post-retirement perspective on that role, the authors he enjoyed working with, the success of his first book, DREYER’S ENGLISH: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style (Random House), and his plans for the followup, DREYER’S FICTION (!). We get into why he’s leaving NYC and looking forward to Santa Monica (and talk about the books that he can leave behind and those he can’t), the way that writing a Substack newsletter has made him a better writer, how the copy-editor’s role is to enhance the writer’s work, not to reshape it, whether his online persona changed after retirement, his love of digressive footnotes, how he feels about “weird” catching on this election season, whether the success of Dreyer’s English surprised him, the moment he KNEW it was a hit, and what his authors had to teach him about the process of writing his first book. We also discuss the tension within the pronoun section of DE (c.2019), how he hopes to revise it, and why the mind needs to catch up with the soul sometimes. All this & a lot more, so give it a listen! And go read DREYER’S ENGLISH!
“The habit of being a writer has made me a better writer, but it’s also made me a better reader.”
“Whenever you get your hands on a new manuscript, read the first 30 or 40 pages with your hands very much behind your back (except for turning the pages).”
“Indolence doesn’t suit me at all, and it never has.”
“There’s always going to be something that someone younger than you does that you hate.”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Benjamin Dreyer, author of the New York Times bestseller Dreyer’s English, is the retired managing editor and copy chief of the Random House division of Penguin Random House. Benjamin began his publishing career as a freelance proofreader and copy editor. In 1993, he became a production editor at Random House, overseeing books by writers including Michael Chabon, Edmund Morris, Suzan-Lori Parks, Michael Pollan, Peter Straub, and Calvin Trillin. He has copyedited books by authors including E. L. Doctorow, David Ebershoff, Frank Rich, and Elizabeth Strout, as well as Let Me Tell You, a volume of previously uncollected work by Shirley Jackson. A graduate of Northwestern University, he lives in New York City for another week or two.
Follow Benjamin on Bluesky, Facebook, and Instagram, and subscribe to his Substack.
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at Benjamin’s home on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photos of Benjamin & Sallie by me. It’s on my instagram.