We Have Adopted This Affectation

A used-to-be-common affectation of magazine and newspaper writers was to take the third person.

Rather than say, "I saw this," they wrote, "The author observed that."

Mike "Duke" Venturino might have been among the last of the gun writers who was still using this affectation in his writing.

I have complained about it before.

But I need to concede that his work was solid and his wife was an excellent photographer.  They made a good team.

I never once caught him being wrong about a topic I knew well, which is more than I can say about younger and more recent authors whose writing style I prefer.

He was an author I'd grit my teeth and endure because his facts were straight even if he impressed himself with his own gun collection.  He wrote so far in the third person he named himself and said he was impressed with his own gun collection!

You can take the conceit too far.

Mr Venturino is no longer among us, but his body of work survives.

Here's a cursory review of two of his books.