Making Meaning with Mainers

E. B. White
1899 – 1985

American essayist, humorist, literary stylist and author of children’s classics Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little

 

Background – Biographical Information & Connection to Maine (3) 

New Biography Celebrates E.B. White, Who Really Was ‘Some Writer!’ (4)

Visual Text: E. B. White was known to do all of his writing on a typewriter. Do you imagine there is an intimate bond that forms between the writer and his or her typewriter? (5)

Click here to read How E. B. White Spun Charlotte’s Web (6)

Click here to read How Stuart Little Arrived (7)

Virtual Visit: See E. B. White’s home in Brooklin, Maine, including the barn that inspired Charlotte’s Web and the boathouse where E. B. White did much of his writing (8)

Reading: What E. B. White Has to Say about Writing (10)

E. B. White’s Writings

Click here to read Once More to the Lake, first published in Harper’s Magazine in 1941 (11)

Click here to read E. B. White’s essay Here Is New York published in 1949 (12)

Click here to read E. B. White’s poem Fashions in Dogs from the pages of The New Yorker, December 19, 1936 (13)

E. B. White Obituary in the Boston Globe 1985 (14)
(zoom in to read)

E. B. White obituary in the New York Times 1985 (15)

E. B. White’s Cemetery Headstone in Brooklin, Maine (16)

 

Find-a-Grave Cemetery Record for E. B. White (17)

 

If you’d like more to explore…

Click here to check out the National Registry of Historic Places (18)

E. B. White shown here with Cornell University professor William Strunk Jr. Strunk gave his students a guide to essential writing principles which became known at Cornell as “the little book” It was published as The Elements of Style after E. B. White (a Cornell graduate) brought attention to it. Click here to read the list of 11 essential “Composition Principles” (19)

 

The Nature of E. B. White (20)

 
Photo credits & Sources from top to bottom of page:
1. Portrait of E. B. White: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6823305/e_b_-white
2. Quote: https://quotefancy.com/quote/1467131/E-B-White-I-would-really-rather-feel-bad-in-Maine-than-feel-good-anywhere-else
3. Neumeyer, Peter F. “E(lwyn) B(rooks) White.” American Writers for Children, 1900-1960, edited by John Cech, Gale, 1983. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 22. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1200002246/LitRC?u=brun84057&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=4b70b5a7. Accessed 16 Mar. 2022.
4. https://www.npr.org/2016/10/05/496699113/new-biography-celebrates-e-b-white-who-really-was-some-writer
5. Top left and right photos: https://timpanogos.blog/2014/06/06/typewriter-of-the-moment-e-b-white-in-rural-maine/ bottom left photo: https://incaseyoureinterested.com/2018/07/11/16-eb-white-quotes-on-writing/
6. https://www.npr.org/2011/07/05/137452030/how-e-b-white-spun-charlottes-web
7. http://www.judynewmanatscholastic.com/blog/2019/01/how_stuart_little/
8. https://newengland.com/today/living/homes/eb-white-house-allen-cove/
9. https://urbancomfort.typepad.com/urban_nest/2012/08/checking-in.html
10. https://www.thoughtco.com/writers-on-writing-e-b-white-1692831
11. http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/bhslibrary/files/2020/04/White-Once-More-to-the-Lake.pdf
12. http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/bhslibrary/files/2020/04/Here-is-NY_EB-White1-yk0d8g-1.pdf
13. http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/bhslibrary/files/2020/04/Dec-19-1936-New-Yorker.pdf
14. http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/bhslibrary/files/2020/04/White-Obituary-1985.pdf
15. http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/bhslibrary/files/2020/04/E.B.-WHITE-The-New-York-Times.pdf
16. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6823305/e_b_-white
17. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6823305/e_b_-white
18. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Hancock_County,_Maine
19. https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/tips-masters/strunk-white-11-composition-principles
20. https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Nature-of-EB-White/127630
 
 
 
 
 

Comments are closed.