"Congratulations on your manly attempt to make me into a literary character," E. B. White wrote in a letter to his biographer. "It isn't going to work, but it makes great reading. I was in stitches much of the way, recalling my Early Ineptitude, my Early Sorrows, my Immaculate Romancing. What a mess I was! No wonder my father worried about me." After the biography was published (in 1984), White offered this insider's review: "I wish you the joy of the book and am only sorry my life wasn't crowded with exciting, bawdy, violent events. I know how hard it is to write about a fellow who spends most of his time crouched over a typewriter. That was my fate, too." <P> "Letters of E. B. White" touches on these and other subjects, including the "New Yorker" editor who became his wife; their dachshund, Fred, with his "look of fake respectability"; and White's literary colleagues, from Harold Ross and James Thurber to Groucho Marx and John Updike and, later, Senator Edmund S. Muskie and Garrison Keillor. Now updated with newly released letters from 1976 to 1985, additional photographs, and a new foreword by John Updike, this unparalleled collection of letters from one of America's favorite essayists, poets, and storytellers now spans nearly a century, from 1908 to 1985.

E.B. White's letters are every bit as casually elegant and amusing as his essays, poems and stories. This revised and updated edition contains newly released letters from 1976 to 1985, additional photographs, and a new foreword by John Updike, who provides an excellent overview of White's writing life. The text contains many photographs of White, his family and friends and explanatory notes on the letters, where necessary. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

< P> Originally edited by Dorothy Lobrano Guth, and revised and updated by Martha White< /P> < P> Foreword by John Updike< /P> < P> These letters are, of course, beautifully written but above all personal, precise, and honest. They evoke E.B. White's life in New York and in Maine at every stage of his life. They are full of memorable characters: White's family, the New Yorker staff and contributors, literary types and show business people, farmers from Maine and sophisticates from New York& ndash; Katherine S. White, Harold Ross, James Thurber, Alexander Woolcott, Groucho Marx, John Updike, and many, many more. < /P> < P> Each decade has its own look and taste and feel. Places, too& ndash; from Belgrade (Maine) to Turtle Bay (NYC) to the S.S. Buford, Alaska& ndash; bound in 1923& ndash; are brought to life in White's descriptions. There is no other book of letters to compare with this; it is a book to treasure and savor at one's leisure. < /P> < P> As White wrote in this book, A man who publishes his letters becomes nudist& ndash; nothing shields him from the world's gaze except his bare skin....a man who has written a letter is stuck with it for all time.< /P>

Originally edited by Dorothy Lobrano Guth, and revised and updated by Martha White

Foreword by John Updike

These letters are, of course, beautifully written but above all personal, precise, and honest. They evoke E.B. White's life in New York and in Maine at every stage of his life. They are full of memorable characters: White's family, the New Yorker staff and contributors, literary types and show business people, farmers from Maine and sophisticates from New York–Katherine S. White, Harold Ross, James Thurber, Alexander Woolcott, Groucho Marx, John Updike, and many, many more.

Each decade has its own look and taste and feel. Places, too–from Belgrade (Maine) to Turtle Bay (NYC) to the S.S. Buford, Alaska–bound in 1923–are brought to life in White's descriptions. There is no other book of letters to compare with this; it is a book to treasure and savor at one's leisure.

As White wrote in this book, "A man who publishes his letters becomes nudist–nothing shields him from the world's gaze except his bare skin....a man who has written a letter is stuck with it for all time."

A legendary writer for decades at The New Yorker and the author of many books of essays, E. B. White also wrote the children's classics Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, and The Trumpet of the Swan. He lived in New York City and Brooklin, Maine.