After I ruminated earlier today about the relationship between writers and editors, coming down rather heavily on the side of the latter, Frank Moorman posted a comment on Facebook that pointed me to a contrary view, one too good not to share.
As recounted by Neel Mukherjee, the editor of the Times Literary Supplement cut a sentence and a half from a 5,000-word Henry James review to make it fit. James returned the proofs, writing, "Dear Richmond, Here's the bleeding corpse. Yours is a butcher's trade."
