E.B. White
Author Study
by Sondra Keckley
Biographical Information
• Born on July 11, 1899, as Elwyn Brooks White in
Mount Vernon, New York
• Son of Jessie Hart and Samuel Tilly White, a
prominent piano manufacturer
• His family was comfortably well off, but not
wealthy
• Youngest child, with two brothers & three sisters
• Attended local public schools in Mount Vernon,
New York
• Attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York,
graduating in 1921, with a Bachelor of Arts
degree
• Married New Yorker editor Katharine Sergeant
Angell in 1929, and they had one son, Joel White
• Died of Alzheimer's disease on October 1, 1985,
in North Brooklin, Maine
Career Timeline
• Offered a teaching position at the
University of Minnesota, but turned it down
because his goal was to become a writer
• Worked for the United Press International
and the American Legion News Service from
1921-1922
• Reporter for the Seattle Times from 1922-1923
• Worked for two years with the Frank Seaman
advertising agency as a production assistant and
copywriter
• Had poems published in "The Conning Tower" by
Franklin P. Adams
Career Timeline Turning Point
• Published the article "Defense of the
Bronx River" in 1925, in the New Yorker
magazine.
• This was his first piece in the New
Yorker, which led to his being named
a contributing editor in 1927—an
association which continued until his
death in 1985.
Career Timeline Continued
• 1929: published a collection
of poetry, The Lady Is Cold
• Also that year, partnered
with James Thurber to write
a parody of the current
trend of Freudian
psychology books
of the 1920s, titled
Is Sex Necessary?
E.B. White with
James Thurber
Career Timeline Continued
• 1931: published Ho Hum
• 1932: published Another
Ho Hum
• 1934: published Every
Day is Saturday
• 1936: under the
pseudonym Lee Strout
White, published the
essay "Farewell My
Lovely!“, in the New
Yorker
• 1938: poetry collection
The Fox of Peapack
• Also that year, began
monthly column with
Harper’s magazine,
called “One Man’s
Meat”
White Makes a Move
• 1938: Moved to the country, to a farm in
North Brooklin, Maine
• Continued his writing career without the
responsibilities of a regular job
• The barn near his home was the inspiration
for many of his characters he will soon
write about in his children’s books
Career Timeline Continued
• 1939: published an essay collection,
titled Quo Vadimus?
• 1941: edited with his wife the book
The Subtreasury of American Humor
• 1942: published the collection of
his Harper’s magazine
columns in
One Man’s Meat
White’s Career Enters a New Field:
Children’s Literature
• Began writing Stuart Little in hopes of
amusing his 6-year-old niece, Janice
Hart White, but before he finished it
she had grown up and was reading
Hemingway.
• Only published 3 children’s books:
 1945: Stuart Little
 1952: Charlotte’s Web
 1970: The Trumpet of the Swan
Career Timeline Continued
• 1946: Published The Wild Flag
• 1949: Published Here Is New York,
in which he eerily wrote:
“A single flight of planes no
bigger than a wedge of
geese can quickly end this
island fantasy, burn the
towers, crumble the bridges,
turn the underground
passages into lethal
chambers, cremate millions...
Of all targets New York has a
certain clear priority. In the
mind of whatever perverted
dreamer might loose the
lightning, New York must
hold a steady, irresistible
charm."
Career Timeline Continued
1959: Revised &
updated, adding a
chapter titled “An
Approach to Style”, his
Cornell professor,
William Strunk, Jr.’s,
book The Elements of
Style, originally written
in 1918. This handbook
to grammar & style has
been republished
numerous times, as
recent as 2005, and is
still being used in
colleges & high schools
today.
Career Timeline Finalized
• 1962: Published
The Points of My
Compass
• 1976: Letters of
E.B. White, edited
by D.L. Guth
• 1977: Published
Essays of E.B.
White
• 1981: Published
Poems and
Sketches of E.B.
White
In the Words of White
“Writing is hard work
and bad for the
health.”
~E.B. White
“Mr. White finds writing
difficult and bad for
one’s health, but he
keeps at it even so.
He would like, more
than anything, to be
a poet. The poets,
he thinks, are the
great ones.”
~back cover of
Stuart Little
Awards and Accolades
•
Gold Medal for Essays and Criticism from the
National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1960
•
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963
•
Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for his children's books
in 1970
•
National Medal for Literature in 1971
•
Elected to the American Academy of Arts and
Letters in 1973
•
Sequoyah Award from Oklahoma in 1973
•
William Allen White Award from Kansas in 1973
•
Honorary Pulitzer Prize for his work as a whole in
1978
•
Honorary degrees from seven American colleges
and universities
White’s Insights and Humor
“I get up every morning determined to both
change the world and have one hell of a
good time. Sometimes this makes planning
my day difficult.”
“I would feel more optimistic about a bright
future for man if he spent less time proving
that he can outwit Nature and more time
tasting her sweetness and respecting her
seniority.”
“People are, if anything, more touchy about
being thought silly than they are about
being thought unjust.”
~E.B. White
The E.B. White Read Aloud Award
• Established in 2004 by the Association of
Booksellers for Children
• Store members nominate books that are their
favorite to suggest when asked “Can you
suggest something that my family and I can
read together?”
• Books should be “terrific” to read aloud
• Criteria for nominations include “dynamic
writing, engaging themes, and universal appeal.
In the case of picture books, the relationship
between writing and illustration should be strong,
and the structure of the book should build an
enjoyable sense of anticipation.”
• In 2006, “in recognition of the fact that reading
aloud is a pleasure at any age, the award was
expanded into two categories: Picture Books,
and Older Readers”.
Why I Chose E.B. White
•
•
•
I own original copies of
White’s three children’s
books, and remember
reading them as a kid.
I have read Charlotte’s Web
to my oldest daughter at
least 5 or 6 times, and since
the summer we have read
The Trumpet of the Swan
and Stuart Little.
Being a science person, I
have always loved the
scientific details White
infused into Charlotte’s Web
and The Trumpet of the
Swan. I have learned a lot
about spiders and trumpeter
swans reading those books.
I think kids should learn
about their world while
enjoying a fun story.
•
•
•
I have always loved
White’s sense of humor
and writing style. His
books were just as
enjoyable to me as an
adult, and my kids would
crack up, too.
I learned a lot doing this
study, too. I didn’t realize
those were his only
children’s books, I just
thought they were the only
books of his I owned. I
learned just how diverse of
a writer White was, and
that most of his career
was for adults.
I find it interesting that
although White only wrote
the 3 children’s books,
there is a Read Aloud
Award in his honor.
I Must Criticize Stuart Little
•
•
•
•
•
•
White’s first attempt at writing a children’s novel was
clearly just that.
I felt this book was too episodic in nature, yet the
chapters started becoming a little more related at the
end. This gave a choppy and confusing feeling to the
story.
The ending was too abrupt and Stuart just left home to
travel the world without telling his parents.
Much of the story line had no point and the story
wasn’t very cohesive. White also didn’t explain much.
There were grammatical errors, and much of the
language or phrases were dated or phrased differently
than how we would say it today.
I did not approve of White’s attitude toward school
when Stuart subbed at a school. Children shouldn’t be
given such a negative view of school and learning.
My daughter and I had to laugh it off, knowing that
was not the proper way a teacher should behave.
Let’s End on the Note of a Quote
“Old age is a special problem for me because I've never
been able to shed the mental image I have of myself a lad of about 19.”
“It is not often that
someone comes along
who is a true friend and a
good writer.”
“English usage is
sometimes more than
mere taste, judgment
and education sometimes it's sheer
luck, like getting across
the street.”
~E.B. White
Works Cited
“E.B. White”. Encyclopedia of World Biography. 28 Nov 2009.
<http://www.notablebiographies.com/We-Z/White-E-B.html>.
“E.B. White”. Fantastic Fiction. 28 Nov 2009.
<http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/w/e-b-white/>.
“E.B. White”. Wikipedia. 28 Nov 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._B._White>.
“E.B. White (American Writer)”. Britannica Online Encyclopedia. 28 Nov 2009.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/642023/E-B-White>.
E.B. White Infosite. 28 Nov 2009. <http://ebwhite.net/index.html>.
“E.B. White Quotes”. Brainy Quote. 28 Nov 2009.
<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/e_b_white_2.html>.
“E.B. White Quotes”. The Quotations Page. 28 Nov 2009.
<http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/E._B._White/>.
Works Cited Continued
Liukkonen, Petri. “E(lwyn) B(rooks) White (1899-1985)”. Books and
Writers. 28 Nov 2009. <http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ebwhite.htm>.
“Search Results for E.B. White”. Google Images. 24 Nov 2009.
<http://images.google.com/images?q=EB+White&oe=utf8&rls=org.mozilla:enUS:official&client=firefoxa&um=1&ie=
UTF-8&ei=xlYRS_bbJo2mMI-sDM&sa=X&oi=image_result_
group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCcQsAQwAw>.
“The E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards”. The Association of Booksellers
for Children. 29 Nov 2009. <http://theabfc.wordpress.com/theeb-white-read-aloud-awards/>.
White, E. B. Stuart Little. New York: Harper & Row Publishers,
1945.