Holly

Kohn
Dr. Meyer
Comm 4890
24 November 2015

Kohn 1

E.B. White

Introduction

To many, E.B. White reminds them of their childhood reading books like
Stuart Little, Charlottes Web, and Trumpet of the Swan. To others, E. B. White is a
source of inspiration and writing role model for his work in the New Yorker. Still
others know him solely for his work on a style manual. How people think of him is
generally only a portion of his lifes work. E. B. White was known for his impact on
various genres, his simple, but elegant writing style, his over-arching themes, and
his efforts on editing the famous The Elements of Style.

Sketch of his life

E.B. White, born as Elywn Brooks White in 1899 in Mount Vernon, New York.
(Davis). His father was a piano manufacturer for a New York business, which
allowed E. B. to live a comfortable life in the suburbs (Davis). According to E. B.
White, he started [writing] as soon as [he] could spell and cant remember any
time in [his] life when [he] wasnt busy writing(Miller). He thought because he
needed an outlet for his childhood imagination that drawing or writing was the
answer (Miller). He wasnt good at drawing, so he used words instead (Miller). He
was a private in the Army (Davis). Once he finished serving, he attended Cornell
University, where William Strunk was one of his freshman professors (Miller).
His various writing positions included: a United Press reporter, an American
Legion News Service reporter and a Seattle Times reporter, among other positions
(Davis). Eventually, he worked for The New Yorker, where his precise, ironic,
nostalgic prose style closely associated with [The New Yorker](Miller). He married
Katherine Angell, with whom he had a son (Davis). He retired to Maine and wrote
through his retirement. E.B. White passed away from Alzheimer's disease on Oct. 1,
1985, in North Brooklin, Maine (Davis).

His Impact on Writing

As for his vast impact upon the field of writing, E. B. White influenced the
genres of essays, fiction, poetry, and childrens literature. The impact on writing was
not solely through the writing itself, but also influenced current and future writers.
Throughout his life, he won several awards including: The 1971 National Medal for
Literature, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, the Gold Medal for Essays
and Criticism in 1960, the 1970 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, and the special citation
Pulitzer Prize in 1978, among others (Writing 30). To this day, his pieces of
writing get continual critical and popular praise. In 2001, Publishers Weekly
reported in 2001 that Charlottes Web was the all-time best-selling paperback
childrens book.

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In his essays, E. B. White impacted writing through leaving lasting
impressions. People who have read E. B. White are inspired by his method of writing
and descriptions, propelling their own writing in new directions. For instance, the
emotive lens grounded by White has allowed his readers to experience events in
the way that he describes them (Cohen). One lasting lens is the way E. B. White
described a scene with his son where he began to sustain the illusion that he was I,
and therefore, by simple transposition, that I was my father (Once More). For
Cohen, he imagines a scene with his own son where he has become his father when
his son explains that a daddy-longleg spider is not a spider but a harvestman. The
same scene happened in his youth with his father on the tails on tadpoles (Cohen).
Cohen can know understand and articulate this unnerving feeling because of E. B.
Whites exploration of this concept.

He also left a lasting impression through his advice and input on the field of
writing itself. The way he understands writing is touching to many writers. He
speaks of writing itself as an act of faith (Writing 30). He believes that a writers
whole dutyis to please and satisfy yourself and that the audience to cater to is
purely yourself (Strunk 84). This duty of writing is refreshing to hear in an age
where we have to consider audience everywhere. It can only hurt the writer to place
too much emphasis on a popular audience. It generates inauthentic writing, which is
not good writing at all. E. B. White reminds us that writing is for the benefit of the
writer, which is freeing. His advice in The Elements of Style and through his sketches
gives writers of all levels a sense of comfort.

His sketch of New York was brought into light after the September 11, 2001
terrorist attack. His writing years before speaks that it is a miracle that New York
works at all and that New York should have destroyed itself long ago, from panic
or fire or rioting or failure of some vital supply line in its circulatory system or from
some deep labyrinthine short circuit, and yet it hasnt. After 9/11, his writing was
sensed as prophetic (Heitman 23).

E. B. White published two volumes of poems. These included: The Lady Is
Cold and The Fox of Peapack, and Other Poems. His poems were noticed for their wit
and exquisite form (Davis). He encompassed poetry within his other works. For
example, he included the following poem as a possible inscription next to his brain
(if he were to donate it to Cornell University):

Observe, quick friend, the quiet noodle,
This kit removed form its caboodle.
Here sits a brain at last unhinged,
On which too many thoughts impinged. (Daylight and Darkness 186)

Unlike many other poets, he allowed silliness into his poetry. This selection shows
how he didnt take himself too seriously even though he was a serious writer. His

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poetry has impacted that realm of writing, but it is his other genres that seem to
speak to most readers.

E. B. Whites influences on childrens literature include: Stuart Little,
Charlottes Web, and The Trumpet of the Swan. For his first childrens book, he
dreamt of a mouse named Stuart Little. After 12 years, the book was published.
Originally, the story was intended for his young niece, but she grew up before the
book was published. Even though she was grown, the book is still considered a
classic. It has been adapted into a movie, as have his other childrens books.
Charlottes Web is often considered his masterpiece (Cohen 91). His final childrens
book, The Trumpet of the Swan, won awards in Kansas and Oklahoma as being the
favorite children book in 1973. To this day, these three children books are regarded
as classics and necessary reading for elementary-level students.

His Writing Style

E. B. Whites style has been praised through the years. His essays are
described as informed and clear (Davis). He writes with simplicity and
complexity in the same work (Heitman). His One Mans Meat column in Harpers
was significant to the World War II effort because of its plainspoken, selfdeprecating, and with a gentle but abiding skepticism about institutional authority
(Heitman). His stepson, Roger Angell, a writer himself, says E. B Whites prose is
celebrated for its ease and clarity, but that involves detailed, never-ending
attention to the elements of style, and his particular elements of style (Strunk x).
However his style is described, many admire it, some imitate it, but few achieve it.

He has a gentle way of writing, according to my Communication professor,
Dr. Meyer. This is the way he goes above and beyond the basic level of writing to
explore deep concepts. E. B. White does this in everything he wrote. One could
simply get the surface meaning and the story would make sense. For instance,
Charlottes Web is a simple enough story. On the surface, it is a story about a
friendship between a pig and spider and a young girl. This story is at least partly
about the deferral of death by magic, meaning the story is comprehensible for
children (Cohen 91). Looking deeper though, the larger image is not the deferral of
death, but that death is inescapable and the renewal of life is the closest thing to
justice in the cosmic scheme, but death is its price (Cohen 91).

Another example of his gentle writing is in his single paragraph reply to the
Writers War Board. E. B. White goes beyond a literal definition to explore
connotations and associations that surround the word democracy (Miller 428). A
definition could be just a few words, as dictionaries often do. However, E. B. White
knows that democracy is worth more words and that it needs context. He leaves his
readers with the understanding that democracy is a request from a War Board, in
the middle of the morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy
is (On Democracy). On the surface, that previous sentence is written simply.

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Nonetheless, the implications are much more complex. Democracy is what the War
Board is asking. Democracy is the ability and desire for the War Board to ask.

In addition, E. B. White can stylistically combine his reporting eye with the
elements of creative writing. This is why he did not last long at the Seattle Times
(Heitman). He needed to write more descriptively and more deeply than journalism
normally allows. This mixture is most evident in his piece Education. He is
reporting on the shift from city education to country education. In this, he speaks in
the first person about his family, but it is removed to talk more formally about the
third-grade scholar in attendance (Education). His word choice includes the
formalization of snowball fights to snowball engagements (Education 192). In
contrary, E. B. White also describes how the bus would sweep to a halt, opens its
mouth, suck the boy in, and spring away with a angry growl (Education 193). The
latter quote would seem out of place appearing in a piece of journalism, but the
former would seem somewhat out of place appearing in a personal essay.

Themes in E. B. Whites Writing

Death is a key theme that E. B. White wrote about in many of his writing
pieces, but it is not overwhelming, which speaks to his gentle way. His stepson,
Roger Angell points out that White works the word death into the passage as a
sentence-closer, and goes on todecide that writing about death became a strength
for him" (Cohen 91).

E. B. White talks about legacy. He has no shortage of works that are his
legacy. In a short piece, he worries that his brain might suffer in comparison if he
were to give his brain to Cornell University upon his death (Daylight and Darkness
186). In his acceptance letter for the 1971 National Medal for Literature, he refers to
his cadaver of [his] work as more appropriate, rather than the corpus of [his]
work (Writing 30). He speaks to legacy in Once More to the Lake, where he
hopes to pass on his love of water to his son.

Another element often incorporated is water and nature activities. In one
short story, he speaks of a lake retreat with his son, where he is reminded of his
childhood trips to the lake. In another, he speaks of his love for sailing and how he
wont be able to quit (The Sea). In his short, sweet sketch Daylight and Darkness,
he incorporates natural with the description of nature as small leaves descend[ing]
singly and serenely, except now and then when a breeze entered and caused a
momentary rain of leaves and inner mitten showers (Daylight and Darkness
186).

One major element that E. B. White writes well about is the everyday. His
One Mans Meat column allowed him to convey the nuances of day-to-day farm life
and explore the deeper concepts through that lens. This style of writing allowed his
imagination to recharge and he was able to write about the everyday in an everyday
style with the added complexities underlying. For example, Cohen writes:

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And when news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor reached his
household on December 7,1941, White noted that his wife had lost the
stopper to a hot water bottle, a minor mishap that seemed, somehow, to
underscore the larger disorder shaking the world to its knees. (20).

His dedication to the everyday made him popular to the men fighting abroad during
the war, as well as readers throughout the ages. The way he connected large themes
to small, individual events served him and his readers well. There was always
something larger that E. B. White was pointing to.

E. B. White wrote about issues that mattered to him, issues that he knew and
loved. Many people offer the writing advice to write what you know. I think this is
could stem from E. B. Whites skills to write about what he knows and loves. He even
admits that this is significant to him in his chapter, An Approach to Style, of The
Elements of Style. He states in Rule 2: Write in a way that comes naturally (Strunk).
He is explicitly speaking of words, phrases, style elements, but it can be extended to
content in general. If a writer does not have natural control over the writing, then it
will be spurious. Readers do not like it when the writer doesnt know and love what
theyre writing about.

The Elements of Style

The other main effect he had on writing more generally was his work on The
Elements of Style. He was offered the chance to edit the style manual that was
originally written by William Strunk Jr., his late professor (Davis).This little book,
as it was known, included a grammar glossary, advice on pronoun uses, punctuation
rules, and suggestions for avoiding sexism (much later) (Strunk). The editing of this
book was significant and was also a guide to his own style of writing.

Originally, the little book was 43 pages to properly use English with
cleanliness accuracy, and brevity (Strunk). Since the original, the book has nearly
doubled in size. E. B. White did not want to minimize the abruptness that Strunks
commands held. Instead, he added a chapter on his approach to style, updated
examples, and added a few rules. The collaboration of this little book is seamless;
both authors gave their best, dependable advice. It is also still regarded (as is many
of E. B. Whites work) as a classic and important necessity to all writers, from an
executive writing an email to a well-known, successful columnist.

After E. B. White edited and contributed to the style manual twice (1957 and
1979), it underwent another edition. Roger Angell wrote the foreword to this last
edition. In his foreword, he describes how E. B. White was the first writer he had
watched and how familiar writing the Notes and Comments page for the New
York was for his stepfather (Strunk ix). In the same strand, he rarely seemed
satisfied, saying: It could be better (Strunk ix). Once it came back in print, his
stepson remembers his facial expression being slightly different than when he sent

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it off: Well, O.K., he seemed to be saying. At least I got the elements right (Strunk
x).

Conclusion

While E. B. White was known for his impact, his writing style, his overarching themes, and The Elements of Style, he was also more than what his readers
can put to words. His accomplishments are far-reaching and deep, but he is a man of
more than just his accomplishments. He is an inspiration for anyone who loves to
write to be able to find writing as a way of earning a living (Miller). Along with the
millions of fans, he continues to attract new fans (Heitman 51). This inspiration
will live on through his texts, and yet we, all of his readers, do feel the chill of his
death (Once More).

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Works Cited

Cohen, Michael. On Not Being E. B. White. The Kenyon Review 32:4, in JSTOR. 8692, 2010. Web. 19 November 2015.
E. B. White. Daylight and Darkness. Poems and Sketches of E. B. White. Comm 4980
Handouts. 186. Print.
E. B. White. Education. Comm 4980 Handouts. 192-194. Print.
E. B. White. New York. Comm 4980 Handouts. 64. Print.
E. B. White. Once More to the Lake. In The Prentice-Hall Reader. 555-560. Print.
E. B. White. Democracy. 1943. Comm 4980 Handouts. 427. Print.
E. B. White. Writing itself is an act of faith. Cornell Alumni News. Comm 4980
Handouts. 30. Print.
E. B. White. The Wind and the Sea that Blows. Essays of E. B. White. Comm 4980
Handouts. 205-207. Print.
Davis, Anita Price. E. B. White. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, in Research
Starter. n. p., 2015. Web. 21 November 2015.
Heitman, Daniel. The White Pages. Humanities 35:1. 20-51, 2014. 19 November
2015.
Miller, George. The Prentice-Hall Reader. 8th edition.
Strunk, William. The Elements of Style. 4th edition. 2000. Print.