Jeff Cooper's writing style question.

[Walkalong]

I liked his writing style. Another favorite was Ross Sefried. I wanted to buy everything he ever wrote about.

 

[duns]

From the Chicago Manual of Style:

We is sometimes used by an individual who is speaking for a group {the council’s representative declared, “We appreciate your concern”} {the magazine’s editor wrote, “In our last issue, we covered the archaeological survey of Peru”}. This latter use is called the editorial we. Some writers also use we to make their prose appear less personal and to draw in the reader or listener {from these results we can draw only one conclusion}.

 

[winknplink]

ol Cooper grew up and was educated in a different time when one's style in spoken and written language was a small measure of the man.

Excellent point. What a shame that this mentality has dissolved.

Ever go back and listen to our former Presidents make speeches/addresses? Like Kennedy or Roosevelt? Pay attention to the diction and vocabulary used while addressing the American public. Those same speeches, if aimed at today's rank and file, would fall mostly on deaf ears because they simply could not follow the vernacular.

I, for one, am tired of seeing our language bastardized by the lazy and uneducated, which is what makes reading Cooper's works such a joy for me.

 

[Balrog]

Yea, I say we should all go back to Middle English.

 

[shockwave]

The use of the "editorial we" is not uncommon and most certainly not a quaint relic of days gone by. It is alive and well and still widely popular. In fact, most newspaper editorials employ it as a matter of course.

 

[oldfool]

I don't care
I never did mistake Jeff Cooper, nor Teddy Roosevelt for god
but regard both as the the finest and most enjoyable essayists I have ever read
I cannot read either one, without being reminded of the other
I wish we had more of them
YMMV

 

[Jim K]

In the Bible, God sometimes used the "royal we" in referring to himself. Any more questions?

Jim