James J. Kilpatrick, the Wordsmith's Sun Tzu

James J. Kilpatrick is gone, but his legacy can be found anywhere you encounter good writing.

"In the end," he advised other writers, "the test of how well we do our job is not in how well we cover the news, or review the movies, or chide a president, or criticize an actor, but in how well we write.... The chief difference between good writing and better writing may be measured by the number of imperceptible hesitations the reader experiences as he goes along."

That was the golden rule for James Jackson Kilpatrick - reporter, editor, conservative columnist and champion of readable prose. Kilpatrick, aka Jack or Kilpo, died August 15 at the age of 89. Along with his family, he left thousands of better writers who still relish the professional advice he issued in syndicated columns. They continue to be influenced by his books The Writer's Art and Fine Print: Reflections on the Writing Art.

Editorialists rightly fault Kilpatrick for his wrongheaded, long-practiced and ultimately recanted defense of racial segregation. But many of them also laud Jack Kilpatrick for fashioning The Writer's Art, a classic how-to that has mentored many an aspiring journalist, myself included.

If I were asked to pick the best contemporary book on writing, The Writer's Art would be it. Think The Art of War for wordsmiths.

"The writer's art, of course, lies not in merely collecting words or in distinguishing among them," Kilpatrick observed. "The art lies in stringing the right words together artfully. Newspaper reporters may begin by covering a luncheon speech at the Rotary Club, but if they are good reporters - reporters who write con amore - they will aspire to something higher."

As a fellow who started newspapering as an obituary writer, I urge you to heed Kilpo's advice. If you have little passion for the work, get out now. Otherwise, your efforts will expose you.

But if your love for the craft is great, get a copy of The Writer's Art and commit to memory all of Kilpatrick's tips for wooing the muse. Start with his thoughts on cadence - advice, to my knowledge, that exists in no other writing book. Follow that lesson with Kilpatrick's instruction for composing the "music of words." You'll find the lesson showcased in Fine Print:

"We must listen for it, for we read not only with our eyes, but also with our ears. It is therefore desireable that out sentences both read well and sound right. A writer - a serious wrtiter - must cultivate an awareness of life's rhythms. They are all around us, in the sounds of waves, in the changing of the traffic light, in the phases of the moon."

As a syndicated columnist expounding on good writing, Jack Kilpatrick was the Jack of one trade, composing a paean to the period or leading the hunt for the two-toned gerund. Good stuff filled with wit.

I've said it more than once. As a journalist, I've met many interesting people, some of them famous and others accomplished in the most unusual of ways. I'm sorry I never crossed paths with James J. Kilpatrick in person.

He was my mentor at arm's length, the distance from my desk to my bookshelf. So he'll remain.

RIP, Kilpo.

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J.F. McKenna has worked as a reporter, business editor and communications consultant in Cleveland, Ohio.