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.