Leni Zumas's writing crackles. Her books are sharp, bleak, funny, and possibly dangerous. When her collection of short stories, Farewell Navigator,...
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You may know him as "the guy who wrote Charlotte's Web" but did you know that E.B. White was also a brilliant essayist? That he helped form The New Yorker, contributing over 1800 pieces? That he was an environmentalist?
White wrote that "the essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest." Well, luckily for us, everything that White writes about (from life on his farm in Maine to the pulsing streets of New York to his thoughts on Henry David Thoreau) is of great interest, even fifty, sixty years later. His essays are graceful, elegant, and sometimes even deceiving, focusing on the small things in life while presenting a greater perspective on the world.
Or, as Charlotte herself might say, White's writing is "terrific" and "radiant" but ultimately, and perhaps most importantly, "humble."
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Essays of E. B. White (Perennial Classics) by E. B. White
danielle.maris, October 12, 2010
You may know him as "the guy who wrote Charlotte's Web" but did you know that E.B. White was also a brilliant essayist? That he helped form The New Yorker, contributing over 1800 pieces? That he was an environmentalist?White wrote that "the essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest." Well, luckily for us, everything that White writes about (from life on his farm in Maine to the pulsing streets of New York to his thoughts on Henry David Thoreau) is of great interest, even fifty, sixty years later. His essays are graceful, elegant, and sometimes even deceiving, focusing on the small things in life while presenting a greater perspective on the world.
Or, as Charlotte herself might say, White's writing is "terrific" and "radiant" but ultimately, and perhaps most importantly, "humble."
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)