CHAPTER 6
SWEET ANTICIPATION
How to Build Excitement for What Happens Next
Carl Sandburg, the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet, spent the last years of his life on a farm in North Carolina. The distinguished journalist Edward Murrow (you may recognize him for his famous “Good night and good luck” sign-off) visited Sandburg for a stimulating conversation between two people in love with words. At the end of the interview, Murrow asked the poet:
“Mr. Sandburg, what is the ugliest word in the English language?”
“The ugliest word … ? The ugliest word … ? Uh … uh? The ugliest word … ?”
Most books and websites reporting this story relate it with a certain amount of detail before revealing Sandburg’s answer. One says: “The poet frowned. He reflected awhile, ...
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