Letters of E. B. White

I have read all his letters. Several more than once. In doing so, I have come up with a list of positions that E.B. White took since the mid 1930s. Very few people can be right about everything. I think he was right maybe 99% of the time. (Don't know what the 1% wrong would be though). 1. He was against the isolationist stance promoted by the Lindberghs. White was against all wars up to this one, but he could not accept what Hitler was doing in Europe. He saw the danger and wrote about it. He was not the first one to write. There were many people who actually lived or traveled extensively in Europe during this time that spoke out first, but White was an eloquent spokesman against Nazis and isolationism. 2. He was a strong advocate of world government. He was the first writer who had a national forum to write on it. And he wrote a lot. For a time fully one-third of his editorials in The New Yorker were on that subject. It hasn't worked out as well as he had hoped, but much of that is because the United States has not backed the United Nations in the way we should have. Also, White was strongly against the veto power given to the major nations (particular the Soviet Union). Again, I think time has proven him right. 3. He was the first to criticize the House Un-American Activities Committee. And it was at a time when Congress, by a vote of 346-17, agreed to issue subpoenas to the Hollywood Ten. To come and support these 10 people and look directly into the eyes of 346 members of Congress and tell them "you're wrong", took a great act of courage. Unfortunately, there weren't many others like him at the time. 4. He spoke out against Joseph McCarthy even when Eisenhower was afraid to publicly do so. It was his eloquence and his ability to shape people's minds with his words that helped stop this political rock that was rolling down a very steep hill. 5. He was against nuclear testing. He was the first one to ever do so in an editorial. 6. He wrote extensively on the environment. He called attention to the many violations of city ordinances that prohibited belched, black, soft-coal smoke from entering our urban atmosphere. Between 1959 and 1960 he wrote 17 columns on environmental pollution that The New Yorker published anonymously under the heading "These Precious Days." 7. He was in the forefront against racial discrimination. He wrote this in Harper's Magazine in February 1941: There are two moving picture theaters in the town to which my key (he was vacationing in the Florida Keys) is attached by a bridge. In one of them, colored people are allowed in the balcony. In the other, colored people are not allowed at all. I saw a patriotic newsreel there the other day that ended with a picture of the American flag blowing in the breeze, and the words: one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Everyone clapped, but I decided I could not clap for liberty and justice (for all)

E.B. Whites letters are honest and intimate, insightful and extremely funny. White's letters often deal with his experiences and feelings about the writing process. Because of this, I would recommend reading his letters before reading collections of his essays. These letters are as satisfying, if not more so, than any biography.

I wish everyone could write as well as E.B.White! It is a great pleasure to travel with him through his life by way of his letters! This collection is museum quality art that is available to us instantly upon picking up the book!

E.B. White was a well known writer for The New Yorker, but I think his real genius was in writing letters to friends and family. He wrote about the ordinary and made it more than interesting, but fun. (His description of how to set up your room when admitted to the hospital is hysterical!) But he also wrote about hard times in life, his wife's illness, his own aging, death of friends and family. He wrote with honesty, clarity, and gusto. Letter writing (and READING a letter also) should never be a chore. Reading White's letters never is. I keep this book on the nightstand by my bed.

Transparent writing consists of prose that doesn't tell; it is prose that shows. E. B. White is the master of this. His prose takes you where he wants you to be and, once there, shows you the sights, lets you smell the aromas and hear the sounds. A modest man, E. B. White claims often that writing for him is difficult and painful. Yet this collection of letters shows that from the beginning, Elwyn Brooks White had an innate ability to write simply, clearly, and charmingly. Whether he is thanking young readers for compliments, advising aspiring writers on writing, or berating a famous author for endorsing a product, he is witty, clear, and compassionate. Reading these letters you will think, cry, laugh, and even wince, but you will not frown in confusion as you wonder what the writer is trying to say. As a very beneficial side effect, reading E. B. White will often improve your own writing. Am I biased? You bet! Years of reading the stilted, jargon-laced writing of business, and the contrived, artificial efforts at "style" of many authors, reading anything by E. B. White is like talking to your best friend.