Charlotte's Web: E.B. White

[Deleted]

Here is a good quote for those who like to write.
A writer who inspired readers to get lost with his characters, writer Elwyn Brooks White (1899-1985) was born on this day in Mount Vernon, New York.

"Writing is an act of faith," he said. "Not a trick of grammar."

White wrote his classic children's story Charlotte's Web while living on his North Brooklin farm on the coast of Maine. The story goes that one day White felt sorry for a pig he was feeding, carried his portable typewriter to a nearby shed that overlooked the ocean, and wrote.

"Like most pigs, he was doomed to die. This made me sad. So I started thinking of ways to save a pig's life," he explained. "I had been watching a big, gray spider at work and was impressed by how clever she was at weaving. Gradually I worked the spider into the story... a story of friendship and salvation on a farm."

The best-selling novel was first published in 1952. White called the illustrations by Garth Williams "beguiling."

Charlotte's Web weaved the magical tale of Wilber the pig and the lessons of love, sacrifice, and protection. "You have been my friend," his character Charlotte said. "That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die."

A miracle for children AND adults to read and remember, Charlotte's Web bequeathed the unforgettable lesson that human beings must always be on the lookout for the coming of wonder.

Writer's Digest TOP 100

www.dailycelebrations.com/071199.htm

I was watching The World Over last night on EWTN and this quote was brought out during a discussion between two writer's.

[denise]

One of my all-time, favorite books. Ironically, last night my 19 lb cat got feisty & did a back flip through the air, and I told my husband it reminded me of Wilbur from Charlotte's Web. "That's some pig."

[dave]

One of my favorites .....


E. B. White on “The Meaning of Democracy”

By The New Yorker

This piece originally appeared in the Notes and Comment section of the July 3, 1943, issue of The New Yorker. “The 40s: The Story of a Decade,” an anthology of New Yorker articles, stories, and poems, will be released on Tuesday.

We received a letter from the Writers’ War Board the other day asking for a statement on “The Meaning of Democracy.” It presumably is our duty to comply with such a request, and it is certainly our pleasure.

Surely the Board knows what democracy is. It is the line that forms on the right. It is the don’t in don’t shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is a letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which hasn’t been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It’s the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee. Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is.
—E. B. White

[clarencebunsen]

Wonderful

[Clipper]

That pretty much says it all Dave. E.B. was a very wise man with a great command of the language, a vivid imagination and vision, and a talent for putting it into his works. (Hmmm. Sounds like a friend I know from Murrell's Inlet, NC to a certain extent. hahaha! ) I have a great respect for those gifted with the ability to put such thoughts into print and to elicit emotion from those of us that read their works. While you have yet to make the best seller list, I truly enjoy your stories Dave.

Alan, I read Charlotte's Web at an early age. Heck, it may have been read TO me at an even earlier age. I read it to all three of my sons at one time or another, and you have now reminded me that I must find a copy in my local book store to send to my latest grand daughter.

[dave]

I wish I could find it, but my book shelves are still a mess three years after our move! Somewhere I have book of essays and memoir from White and in it is a marvelous story about going for a ride in his father's car. This was around WW I and only the well-to-do had automobiles and used them mostly on weekends for short trips or rides in the country,.

Riding in the car with father was fun, of course, but also rather tense as they moved on down the road at possibly 8 miles per hour, the father stopping often when he heard even the slightest odd sound come from the engine or wheels or anywhere under the automobile. Such a large investment ought to be properly cared for and White's father was determined to not let anything happen to what was probably the most expensive item he had ever bought aside from their home.
One fine Sunday afternoon, perfect for car touring with the top down, Mrs. White expressed an inability to accompany her husband and boys due to "the vapors" or some such affliction. The two boys took a drawer of silverware from the dining room and managed to sneak it into the back seat of the open car as Father busied himself up front checking under the hood before departing. About a mile down the road as the auto was straining up a hill and Father was busy feeling the firewall for excess heat, the boys threw the drawer full of silverware overboard. When it slammed into the cement-like road surface, E.B. said it made a horrific sound of metal crashing and crunching and and twisting and tinkling as if every part of the car large and small, from the front seat back to the muffler, had disintegrated. Mr. White went apeshit. He braked hard, turned off the engine, set the shift in a low gear, jumped out of the car, threw himself down on the road and began to pull all of the metal pieces toward him. Until he realized it was all silverware. I don't recall White ever telling us what the consequences of the prank were for him and his brother.

[Clipper]

Great story. LOL