A purge of conservative book editors should worry anyone who cares about democracy The sacking of a pro-Trump executive in the US threatens to have a chilling effect on the publishing industry 23 February 2021 • 6:00am The pen is mightier than the sword. That phrase, coined by the author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in the 1830s and a powerful advocacy of the written language over direct violence, was once a source of comfort. Yet in the past 18 months, I have begun to feel that the strength of this statement brings with it a certain queasiness. Words have always been weapons of course, yet while in the past they were used sparingly, they have now either become tools for a social media riot or in the case of much writing, undetonated hand grenades waiting to cause offence or anger.