William Knowlton Zinsser (October 7, 1922 – May 12, 2015) was an American writer, editor, literary critic, and teacher. He began his career as a journalist for the New York Herald Tribune, where he worked as a feature writer, drama editor, film critic and editorial writer. He was a longtime contributor to leading magazines.

Zinsser attended Buckley Country Day School, Deerfield Academy and graduated from Princeton University. He married Carolyn Fraser Zinsser, with whom he had two children, including John Zinsser, a painter. The Zinssers lived in New York City and in Niantic, Connecticut.^[1] One of his cousins married Konrad Adenauer; another was the spouse of John J. McCloy;^[2] Zinsser wrote, "So it happened that the two men who collaborated most closely on the creation of the new Germany were Zinsser relatives."

Zinsser was second cousin of the painter Thomas S. Buechner.^[3]

Zinsser taught writing at Yale University, where he was the fifth master of Branford College (1973–1979).^{[4][citation needed]} He served as executive editor of the Book-of-the-Month Club from 1979 to 1987.^{[citation needed]} He retired from teaching at The New School and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism because of advancing glaucoma.^{[citation needed] [5]}

His 18 books include On Writing Well, which is in the 30th edition; Writing to Learn; Writing with a Word Processor; Mitchell & Ruff (originally published as Willie and Dwike); Spring Training; American Places; Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs; Writing About Your Life; and most recently, Writing Places, an autobiography. The American Scholar ran William Zinsser's weekly web posting, "Zinsser on Friday," featuring his short essays on writing, the arts, and popular culture.^[6]

In his books, Zinsser emphasizes the word "economy". Author James J. Kilpatrick, in his book The Writer's Art, says that if he were limited to just one book on how to write, it would be William Zinsser's On Writing Well. He adds, "Zinsser's sound theory is that 'writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it."^[7][8]

Zinsser encouraged memoir writers to believe in their own uniqueness and defined success as "doing what you want to do and doing it well".^[9]

Zinsser interviewed Woody Allen in 1963 for the Saturday Evening Post. After a chance encounter in 1980, Allen cast Zinsser, a Protestant, in a small role as a Catholic priest in his film Stardust Memories.^[10]

Zinsser died at the age of 92 in Manhattan on May 12, 2015.^[1]

• Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2006. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000023043

• Official website
• William Zinsser at IMDb
• NYU's Fales Library Guide to the William Zinsser Papers
• Interview with William Zinsser (with original audio) - Modeling Success Series - Embrace Possibility
• Wesleyan Commencement Speech Transcript - Embrace Possibility Blog