The Story of Charlotte's Web
Books | Literary Criticism / Children's & Young Adult Literature
Michael Sims
While composing what would become his most enduring and popular book, E. B. White obeyed that oft-repeated maxim: "Write what you know." Helpless pigs, silly geese, clever spiders, greedy rats-White knew all of these characters in the barns and stables where he spent his favorite hours as a child and adult. Painfully shy, "this boy," White once wrote of himself, "felt for animals a kinship he never felt for people." It's all the more impressive, therefore, how many people have felt a kinship with E. B. White.Michael Sims chronicles White's animal-rich childhood, his writing about urban nature for the New Yorker, his scientific research into how spiders spin webs and lay eggs, his friendship with his legendary editor, Ursula Nordstrom, the composition and publication of his masterpiece, and his ongoing quest to recapture an enchanted childhood.
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Author
Michael Sims
Pages
320
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Published Date
2011-06-07
ISBN
0802778178 9780802778178
Community ReviewsSee all
"Moderately enjoyable biography of E.B. White, creator of Wilbur, Fern, Templeton and of course Charlotte A. Cavatica. I skipped the descriptions of his idyllic mid-century childhood (snooze) but things picked up when New Yorker columnist "Andy" White began researching spiders in preparation for one of the century's most legendary children's books. With empathy, Sims describes White's moral ambivalence over his relationship with farm animals, especially pigs: trusted protector and caregiver, who inevitably betrays that trust in the most brutal way. Fans of mid century literature will get a vicarious thrill from the casual encounters with White's colleagues: Margaret Wise Brown, James (Jim) Thurber, Harold Ross, Wallace Shawn, Garth Williams, and Ursula Nordstrom, the perceptive editor who championed not only Stuart Little and Charlotte, but also Shel Silverstein, Maurice Sendak, and Laura Ingalls Wilder: how much poorer American children's literature would have been without her.<br/><br/>Would have worked better as an extended <i>New Yorker</i> essay, (White's native habitat after all)."
Lesley Williams
"It was a good book with a wonderful and sweet look into the life of a great American writer. I always enjoy insight into beloved books of my childhood"
Jessica A