Jacques Barzun? Morris Philipson? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: There are several roles in the domain of publishing. A prominent thinker has asserted that writing “is the most difficult of all to learn”. The thinker also said writing is “at least a craft and at its best an art”.
These remarks have been attributed to French-American historian Jacques Barzun and U.S. publisher Morris Philipson. I have not been able to find a citation. Who do you think deserves credit? Would you please help?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The answer to this inquiry reveals an intriguing misquotation mechanism. The quotation of interest was crafted by Morris Philipson who was the Director of The University of Chicago Press for more than thirty years. Philipson wrote the foreword to a collection of essays by Jacques Barzun titled “On Writing, Editing, and Publishing: Essays Explicative and Hortatory”.
The quotation appeared within the foreword, but QI conjectures that a careless person looked only at the name of the main author of the collection and assigned the quotation to Barzun. Here is an excerpt from the foreword by Philipson. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Publishing, being a business, offers the most objective conditions for teaching and for evaluating how successfully the trainee is learning his job; editing, too, less sharply defined but seeking to be a profession, offers some opportunities for knowing whether one is learning one’s trade; but writing, at least a craft and at its best an art, aspiring to the unique, is the most difficult of all to learn.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1964 movie actor George Peppard was interviewed in “The Christian Science Monitor”. Peppard used a partially matching quotation while he was described acting:2
“Acting at its least is a craft and at its best an art. It is not possible any more for a young actor to be discovered and to become a star simply because he is ‘appealing.’ It requires knowledge of the craft and a lot of hard work.
In 1971 the first edition of “On Writing, Editing, and Publishing” appeared. In 1986 the second edition appeared.3 Both editions printed the quotation under examination within the foreword by Morris Philipson.
In 2023 the quotation with an attribution to Barzun appeared on the “AZ Quotes” website4 and the QuoteFancy website:5
Writing, at least a craft and at its best an art, aspiring to the unique, is the most difficult to learn.
Jacques Barzun
In conclusion, Morris Philipson deserves credit for this quotation. Philipson wrote the statement within the forward to a collection of essays by Jacques Barzun. Subsequently, the quotation was incorrectly reassigned to Barzun.
Image Notes: Painting of “Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid” by Johannes Vermeer circa 1670. Image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Eccles who pointed to an X-twitter thread about this quotation, and special thanks to Leo Wong who identified the crucial citation for Philipson. The discussion thread led QI to formulate this question and create this article.
- 1971, On Writing, Editing, and Publishing: Essays Explicative and Hortatory by Jacques Barzun, Foreword by Morris Philipson (Director of The University of Chicago Press), Quote Page vii, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1964 January 11, The Christian Science Monitor, What is a star by John C. Waugh, Quote Page 4, Column 2, Boston, Massachusetts. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1986, On Writing, Editing, and Publishing: Essays Explicative and Hortatory by Jacques Barzun, Second Edition, Foreword by Morris Philipson (Director of The University of Chicago Press), Quote Page vii, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- Website: AZ Quotes, Person: Jacques Barzun, No date listed on website. (Accessed AZQuotes.com on October 29, 2023) link ↩︎
- Website: quotefancy, Person: Jacques Barzun, No date listed on website. (Accessed quotefancy.com on October 29, 2023) link ↩︎