When we told Bartleby about the move to the new desk, he set down his pen, folded his hands, and said he would prefer not to.
We understood. A scrivener of his tenure has earned his preferences, and the old Web Forms office suited him — the quiet columns, the unhurried copying, the door that only ever opened one way. He declined the migration, as was his right, and remains, in his fashion, at the old address.
So we went looking for a doer.
We found Lou in the B2B newsletter trenches, where he learned the trade in the 1980s the only way anyone ever does — on deadline, one story to a point, no name in the headline, and out the door before the ink set. Lou does not prefer not to. Lou would rather know what you want to do, and then help you do it — bluntly, if that is what the copy needs.
The desk is his now.
Bartleby, wherever he is, would prefer we not make a fuss.
← Back to the door