Elegant variation is a phrase coined by Henry Watson Fowler referring to the unnecessary use of synonyms to denote a single thing.
As the quotations that follow show, Follett was generally compared favourably with Fowler, doing for Americans, as it were, what Fowler had done for the writer of British English.
In retirement he produced a controversial new edition, substantially rewritten and less prescriptivist, of Fowler's Modern English Usage, the long established style guide by Henry Watson Fowler.
Henry VIII of England | Henry VIII | Henry Kissinger | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | Henry II of England | Henry II | Henry III of England | Henry IV of France | Henry IV | Henry | Henry Ford | Henry James | Henry VII of England | Henry III | Henry Moore | Henry Miller | Henry I of England | Henry Clay | Henry IV of England | Patrick Henry | Henry Mancini | Henry V | Henry David Thoreau | Joseph Henry Blackburne | Henry V of England | Henry VI of England | Henry VII | Henry II of France | Henry Fonda | John Henry Newman |
He and his older brother, Henry Watson Fowler, wrote The King's English together, an influential book which was published in 1906.