The Fair Copy · Thursdays
The Fair Copy
A fair copy is the manuscript written out clean after all the corrections. That is the standard, and the name.
Every Thursday, one essay — nine hundred to twelve hundred words, with its sources shown. Then three fixed marginalia, the same three every week:
One passagequoted exactly, briefly annotated.
One wordfrom the lexicon, with its lineage.
One questionleft open on purpose.
The structure never changes. The ritual is the point.
Reply-to is a read inbox. The good letters get answers — this is a letter, not a broadcast.
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