When you find a favorite writer who also wrote poems, it’s like a light bulb moment! This is what happened earlier this week when I saw a quote by EB White from a letter he had written to a despondent person. It was on social media. And in these times, I thought it was very apropos to share.
You can read the whole letter here, on the marginalian website.
Hope is the thing to hold onto in difficult times, and until all people are gone, it exists. At least, that is what I take from White’s quote.
EB White, if you remember, is the author of three children’s books that are beloved still. My favorite, Charlotte’s Web (1952), followed Stuart Little (1945), and later in the early 1970s, Trumpet of the Swan.
A graduate of Cornell University, White wrote essays for The New Yorker and Harper’s Magazine, among other publications throughout his life. He has a large volume of work, of which it seems his poetry is the least well-received. But there are some gems.
Again, apropos to the times, rather the season now, he wrote this piece on Winter trees:
Trees of Winter
Oh, they are lovely trees that wait
In the still hall of winter
Silent and good where the Good Planter
Fixed the root, wove the branch delicate.
Friendly the birches in the thin light
By the frost sanctified,
And here, too, silent by their side
I stand in the woods, listening, upright…
You can read the rest here.
Throughout his life, EB White was known as an essayist, a humorist, a novelist, and a letter writer. He won numerous honors for his honest, thoughtful, and eloquent work. Among the honors bestowed on him were a special Pulitzer Prize (1978) for the entire body of his work, a Presidential Medal of Freedom (1963), the National Medal for Literature (1971), and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (1970). In 1953, White won a Newbery Honor for Charlotte’s Web.
And for those who have done any writing in academia, White is known for editing The Elements of Style, a required book in many college programs. His Cornell professor, William Strunk Jr., had written the initial copy of the book in 1918. White’s revisions were well received.
This seems like an Ode to EB White, although I’m just amazed at his prolific volume of work and wanted to share more about the man who wrote a beloved children’s story about a spider and a pig. Charlotte’s Web will be a forever-favorite book of mine, and I’m anxious to read more of White’s letters, prose, verse, and poetry.
Linda Mitchell has the roundup this week. Please visit her blog at A Word Edgewise. https://awordedgewiselindamitchell.blogspot.com/ Thanks for hosting, Linda!
I’ll take this chance to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, as I’ll be traveling next week and might not be able to post. My wish is for Peace on Earth, Health, and Happiness for you all.
Carol
The Apples in My Orchard 
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