William Strunk, Jr. (July 1, 1869 – September 26, 1946) is best known as the author of The Elements of Style.  He was born the eldest of four children in Cincinnati and earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati and a PhD from Cornell University.  After a year at the Sorbonne and a brief tenure teaching mathematics, he became professor of English at Cornell University, where he taught for 46 years. He also published a book on poetical forms, English Metres, and compiled critical editions of The Last of the Mohicans, several  Dryden works, and several Shakespeare plays.  He consulted with MGM on the film Romeo and Juliet in the mid-thirties and retired from Cornell in 1937.