Should Autumn Be Capitalized [exclusive] -

Every September, as the maple outside her window turned from deep green to a hesitant gold, Clara would open her style guide. And every year, the answer was the same. The Chicago Manual of Style said: no. Seasons are common nouns. Spring, summer, autumn, winter—lowercase unless personified or part of a proper noun.

The next morning, Clara sat at her desk. She opened the style guide, then closed it. She took out a fresh sheet of paper and wrote a letter to the editor of the grammar column she secretly admired. should autumn be capitalized

The letter was never published. But Clara didn’t mind. The next day, she walked past the baker’s shop and noticed he had changed his sign. It now read: The Best Cake of Autumn. The A was tall, proud, and gold-leafed. Every September, as the maple outside her window

The unease began one October evening when her nephew, Leo, handed her a drawing. He was seven, with jam on his chin and a fierce sense of wonder. The drawing showed a lopsided tree with orange and red crayon scribbles, and beneath it, in wobbly letters: My Frend Autumn. Seasons are common nouns

Leo looked at her as if she’d just told him the moon wasn’t real. “But Autumn is a name,” he said. “She comes every year. She’s my friend. She brings the crunchy leaves and the cold air and the smell of wet dirt. She’s not a thing. She’s a person.”