The Story of Charlotte's Web...Redux

"Where's Papa going with that axe?"

That has got to be the greatest opening line ever! In case you don't recognize it, it is the first sentence in Charlotte's Web by 
E. B. White. It brings a tear to my eye to this day as I know what is coming.

In honor of today being the thirty-year anniversary of Mr. White's death, I am re-running a post below from a couple of years ago in which I encourage you to read Michael Sims's fond look at the early life of Mr. White and his writing of CW. 

I was thrilled to met Michael Sims, the author of The Story of Charlotte's Web, and hear his tale of doing research for the book. He visited the farm in Maine where Mr. White wrote about Charlotte and her word-filled web. My autographed copy holds a treasured place on the bookshelf.

Also, these two links (here and here) will take you to other posts I have written about Mr. White who is one of my favorite authors and whose writing has taught me so much.

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March 11, 2012

Read this book...

Read This Book...if you know nothing of writer E.B. White and the place he holds in literary history.

Read This Book...if you have ever read Charlotte's Web and fallen in love with the tale of the spider and the pig.

Read This Book...if you want to be a writer, or a better writer, for the examples of clarity and conciseness found in White's words and to experience his agony and angst in order to produce such fine writing.

Read This Book...if you hate spiders and want to find out how fascinating they can be and how White himself relished researching their habits in order to give Charlotte as many true characteristics as possible - down to writing words with her web.

Read This Book...if you want to be drawn into the world of E.B.White - his childhood at the turn of the 20th century, his work at The New Yorker, his loving relationship with his wife Katherine White, his love of the natural world and the barnyard animals that inhabited his farm, and his dedication to his life of words.

In short: Read This Book.

Celebrate E.B. White's Birthday!

E.B. White
1899-1985

Happy Birthday to E.B. White who was born this day in 1899. Mr. White was a contributing editor to The New Yorker magazine for 60 years. He also revised and edited William Strunk Jr.'s handy book on English grammar, The Elements of Style. 

Mr. White is most beloved for his story of the friendship between a pig and a spider - Charlotte's Web. He wrote Stuart Little, the story of a mouse born to human parents, and The Trumpet of the Swan.

I love Mr. White for his essays collected in One Man's Meat, The Second Tree From the Corner, The Points of My Compass, all of which sit on my bookshelves along with a piece he wrote for Holiday magazine, Here is New York. It was published as a book in 1949. 

If you haven't already read The Story of Charlotte's Web (2011) by Michael Sims, I urge you to do so. The title is misleading. The book is really an affectionate biography of Mr. White's life up until Charlotte's Web was published and how his life influenced his writings. It is superb. 

So here's to you Elwyn Brooks White and thank you for providing me and many others with so many hours of reading pleasure.