Customer Reviews

Essays of E. B. White

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Most folks will know E.B. White as the author of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, or as the eminently practical voice of reason in The Elements of Style. However, White was also an accomplished essayist, turning out pieces for The New Yorker and Harpers on a regular basis for many years.

What I like about White's essays is that they can be counted on to be insightful, amusing and well-written. White approaches an essay like a pleasant conversation. He's been thinking about New York and its inhabitants, he will tell you, and this what he's come up with. On another occasion it may be the personality quirks of his old dachshund Fred, or the controversy over white versus brown eggs. Anything and everything is food for thought, although you can be sure that White will broaden the scope of his topics to include the world at large. New York, he concludes, is a concentrated version of many worlds, "...bringing to a single arena the gladiator, the evangelist, the promoter, the actor, the trader, and the merchant." Fred, the dachshund, was "...the Cecil B. deMille of dogs. He was a zealot, and I have just been reminded of him by a quote from one of the Democrats..." And the white versus brown egg debate, White concludes, is simply a matter of what you're used to. Personally he prefers brown, and can recommend the egg of the Silver Cross, whose egg is "...so richly brown, so wondrously beautiful as to defy description."

Best of all, White's insightful commentary does not require intense concentration or endless analysis to get the gist of what he is trying to say. You can sit back and relax when you pick up a book of his essays, knowing you won't have to grapple with unfamiliar or awkward language. This is not to imply that you won't find yourself thinking about what he has to say. It's just that his approach is so matter-of- fact, easy going and accessible that you feel you've been invited to tea or are taking a leisurely stroll as the essay unfolds. I read White's essays the way some people read mysteries or romance novels. They are entertaining without being too demanding, and are a great way to set day-to-day concerns aside. Treat yourself to a good read.

I never read E.B. White as a child although all of my friends were very much into "Charlotte's Web" and "The Trumpet of the Swan." Perhaps it was because the only other Stuart I'd ever heard of was White's mouse/hero with the last name Little...a fact that my schoolmates teased me with throughout grade school.

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White has got to be one of the finest writers I've ever read, expressing in 5 graceful words what it takes others paragraphs to do. His descriptions of life in Maine are priceless for anyone, like me, who has longed to let the country boy deep down inside sit back and "smell the roses." And,of course, Maine is still one of the few places in the U.S. that is relatively city poison-free.

Read White's opening sentence in his brilliant "Here Is New York" which is, arguably, the best appreciation of this all-too-crazy city: "On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy." Where did he write those words? "...in a stifling hotel room in 90-degree heat, halfway down an air shaft, in midtown." At the end of this wonderful, wonderful essay (which, by the way has been re-printed, all by itself, in a beautifully illustrated paperback) White contemplates an old Willow tree in the Turtle Bay area and he writes, "This must be saved,this particular thing, this very tree. If it were to go, all would go--this city, this mischievous and marvelous monument which not to look upon would be like death."

What other essayist expresses his thoughts and ours so unself-consciously, so economically and, yes, so magnificently? None that I have come across. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Although he is best known for his children's books, including Charlotte's Web and the Trumpet of the Swan, author E.B. White's primary trade was the personal essay. In this remarkable collection, White brought together the premier essays of his seventy-year career, grouped into broad themes. This collection contains a mixture of period pieces from his years at the New Yorker magazine, including "Here is New York," and perceptive pieces on everyday events of life, such as "What Do Our Hearts Treasure?" Each essay brings a smart outlook toward life, an incredible ability to describe ordinary events vividly, and the melancholy and sentimental perspective that dominated White's life. This is undoubtedly the finest collection of American essays in the twentieth century.

Wow. This book is a treasure chest; I resorted to folding the corners of dozens of pages so I could easily relocate some of its gems.

You will hate reaching the end of this book, but you will come away with renewed powers to observe life's little treasures of daily experience.

Seeing the world through the eyes of E. B. White is an inspiring privelege, and this book enables that. If books were cookies, this one would win a whopping big prize.

Too bad there is/was only one E. B. White; too bad he couldn't have lived for ever. He will always remain as one of the best American essayists while at the same time continuing to earn acclaim for several other books that will always stay in print: childhood classics Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, as well as the newer edition of Elements of Style.
But his essays! Oh, they are so good, so rambling and thoughtful and gently pointed, many humorous while still making a deep and important impression. Anyone who strives to write good prose must read these essays to find out how a master did it and made it look easy. The first one in this volume, Death of a Pig, could serve as a lesson in How to Write.

I couldn't agree with the above review more, except for the last statement. Actually, this is the second-best collection of American essays. The best is E.B. White's "One Man's Meat". White is a devastatingly good writer, regardless of subject or tone, and his essays can be read, re-read and pored over with nothing but greater appreciation at each subsequent read. Virtually anything written by him is bound to be entertaining, informative, enriching and subtle. You owe it to yourself to get to know this man.

You would be hard-pressed to find any writer who constructs sentences more methodically or more elegantly than White. His style is clear as a summer creek. Each word belongs exactly where he put it, and each metaphor is perfectly chosen. You will not find more value per word anywhere.

Above all, though, he is sensible. He doesn't arrive at erratic conclusions, but simple, naturally sane ones, which makes you wish all people would read White as an object lesson on seeing clearly. The world doesn't need to be made difficult, and he proves it.

His power of persuasion through the written word is remarkable (he once wrote a letter to the New York Herald Tribune disagreeing with an editorial, and after few days had passed, the Tribune wrote a public letter of apology for its views. That's effective writing.)

This book is one of the reasons print will never die; it can't be filmed, which means it can't be misinterpreted and possibly destroyed.

Finally, Felix Frankfurter, Supreme Court Justice, once wrote a letter to White, saying, "If angels can write, none wields a better pen than you."

If you read this book, and read it closely, you just might agree.

E.B. White is able to convey the most pure and simple honesty through his written word. He writes about dozens of different topics in this collection and most of them I have no reason to relate to, but I do.

White's prose has the ability to touch you even when he's talking about tending to a sick pig on his farm. Something I'm willing to assume most people have never done. But White uses his reasoning and his emotions to carry you through the story so by the end it doesn't matter what happened, but why it happened and how it felt.

I recommend "Good-Bye to Forty-Eighth Street," "Once More to the Lake," and "Bedfellows."

Although many, if not most, know E.B. White for his children's books, it is in his essays and letters where he truly shines. Although many will equate or compare his work with Twain or even Thurber, White really is in a class by himself. What Ruth is to baseball, what Gretzky is to hockey, E.B. White is to American Letters.

This is such a marvelous book.

The sentences are simply perfect and the sense of wonder he creates makes this a text you will want to go back to over and over. A great gift for any literate person in your life.

Really great.