One Man's Meat (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Angell writes of White in the foreword:'I think One Man's Meat was the making of him as a writer...'" -- Publishers Weekly, July 21, 1997

"Great writing like White's is timeless - a description that also fits Maine." -- Maine Sunday Telegram, July 19, 1998

"Modest in its size and presumptions, engaging in tone...resisted becoming historic...nonstop run of 55 years in print." -- New York TImes Book Review, August 3, 1997

"This remarkable body of writing stands today, after half a century, as one of the greatest books ever written..." -- DownEast Magazine, December 1997

"collection of essays...captures themes...present with us today in the conflicts between war and peace, freedom and protection." -- Mainebiz, June 21, 2004

Product Description

NonfictionLarge Print EditionIn print for fifty-five years, One Mans Meat continues to delight readers with E.B. Whites witty, succinct observations on daily life at a Maine saltwater farm. Too personal for an almanac, too sophisticated for a domestic history, and too funny and self-doubting for a literary journal, One Mans Meat can best be described as a primer of a countrymans lessons a timeless recounting of experience that will never go out of style. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 279 pages
• Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers; 13th edition (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0884481921
• ISBN-13: 978-0884481928
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #40,596 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A war-time celebration of the American Experiment, October 5, 2002

By	Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This collection of essays is such a fine book; it deserves a much better commentary than it currently has here. And given the times we live in, its subject matter is particularly timely for American readers -- the period of history leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the early years of the war effort -- all told from the point of view of a thoughtful writer on a small farm in Maine.

White had moved there with his wife and young son from New York, where he'd been writing for The New Yorker, and took up country living, turning his attention to the annual round of the seasons, farm work, the nearby seaside, and the company of independent rural people. Most of the essays in this collection were written and published monthly in Harpers from July 1938 to January 1943. In them, there is White's awareness of the ominous threat of fascism emerging in Europe, as well as the vulnerability that Americans felt as they found themselves facing prolonged armed conflict with powerful enemies. These were dark days, and they provide a constant undertone in these otherwise upbeat essays about rural and small-town life.

And they are upbeat, celebrating the pleasures and gentle ironies of daily life with a few side trips into the world beyond -- the birth of a lamb, paying taxes, farm dogs, hay fever, raising chickens, Sunday mornings, radio broadcasts, civil defense drills, a visit to Walden pond, a day at the World's Fair, and unrealistic Hollywood portrayals of the pastoral. There is also here his famous essay "Once More to the Lake."

In many ways, the world he writes about is gone forever. But it's a world whose spirit remains at the heart of the national identity -- participatory democracy, individualism, citizenship, self-discovery, and self-reliance. Reading these essays, while they are often about seemingly trivial matters, you sense White's deepening faith in the American Experiment -- a belief in America as a work in progress.

And, of course, there is the famous White style, both simple and elegant. Its language, sentence structure, and movement of thought convey both sharpness of mind and generosity of spirit, in a manner that looks and sounds easy, but it is very hard to imitate. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the WWII homefront, the essay as a literary form, and a curiosity about rural life before farm subsidies and agribusiness.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Window Into White's Soul, December 10, 1998

By A Customer

Understanding E.B. White is not an easy task. He was a reserved man, very straightforward in his writing and simple in nature. However, White found that he was able to express himself with his writing, and none of his books is a more direct window into his soul than "One Man's Meat." Written over the course of White's later years of living on a Maine farm, this book contains witty accounts of geographic novelty, reminiscences on the promise of youth, and powerful insights into the little things in life that can make all the difference. No reader of E.B. White can gain a full knowledge of what the man was all about without having thoroughly digested this book.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More satisfying than banana pudding., October 30, 1998

By A Customer

For one who aspires to write well--the most delicious book I've ever read. The words "witty" and "sharp" come to mind, but poorly describe White and his work. Maybe, no words do with any degree of accuracy and right praise.