Elwyn Brooks White (1899 - 1985)

Elwyn Brooks "E. B." White was born July 11, 1899 in Mount Vernon, New York, United States.^[1][2][3] He was the youngest child of Samuel Tilly White and Jessie Hart.^[4][5][6][7]

White graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor of arts degree in 1921. While at Cornell, he worked as editor of The Cornell Daily Sun. White was a member of the Aleph Samach and Quill and Dagger societies and Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.

White worked for the United Press and the American Legion News Service in 1921 and 1922. From September 1922 to June 1923, he was a cub reporter for The Seattle Times. He was fired from the Times and later wrote for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer before a stint in Alaska on a fireboat. He then worked for almost two years with the Frank Seaman advertising agency as a production assistant and copywriter before returning to New York City in 1924. When The New Yorker was founded in 1925, White submited manuscripts to it. White published his first article in The New Yorker in 1925, then joined the staff in 1927 and continued to contribute for almost six decades. Best recognized for his essays and unsigned "Notes and Comment" pieces, he gradually became the magazine's most important contributor. From the beginning to the end of his career at The New Yorker, he frequently provided what the magazine called "Newsbreaks."

In 1929, culminating an affair which lead to her divorce, White and Katherine Sergeant married. They had a son, Joel.^[8]

In the late 1930s, White turned his hand to children's fiction. His first children's book, Stuart Little, was published in 1945, and Charlotte's Web followed in 1952. Stuart Little initially received a lukewarm welcome from the literary community. However, both books went on to receive high acclaim, and Charlotte's Web won a Newberry Honor from the American Library Association.

He was a columnist for Harper's Magazine from 1938 to 1943.

In 1949, White publisheed a short book called Here Is New York.

In 1959, White edited and updated The Elements of Style. His reworking of the book was extremely well received, and later editions followed in 1972, 1979, and 1999.

White received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal from the U.S. professional children's librarians in 1970. That year, he was also the U.S. nominee and eventual runner-up for the biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award, as he was again in 1976. Also, in 1970, White's third children's novel was published, The Trumpet of the Swan. In 1973 it won the Sequoyah Award from Oklahoma and the William Allen White Award from Kansas.

In 1978, White won a special Pulitzer Prize. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 and honorary memberships in a variety of literary societies throughout the United States. The 1973 Oscar-nominated Canadian animated short The Family That Dwelt Apart was narrated by White and was based on his short story.

White died on October 1, 1985,^[3][9] suffering from Alzheimer's disease, at his farm home in North Brooklin, Maine. He was buried at Brooklin Cemetery, in Brookin, Maine, United States.^[10]

Bibliography

Less than Nothing, or, The Life and Times of Sterling Finny (1927)
White, E. B. (1929). The lady is cold : poems by E. B. W.
Thurber, James; White, E. B. (1929). Is sex necessary? Or, why you feel the way you do.
Ho Hum: Newsbreaks from the New Yorker (1931). Intro by E. B. White
Alice Through the Cellophane, John Day (1933)
Every Day is Saturday, Harper (1934)
A Subtreasury of American Humor (1941). Co-edited with Katherine S. White.
One Man's Meat (1942): A collection of his columns from Harper's Magazine
The Wild Flag: Editorials From The New Yorker On Federal World Government And Other Matters (1943)
Stuart Little (1945)
Here Is New York
Charlotte's Web (1952)
The Second Tree from the Corner (1954)
The Elements of Style (with William Strunk, Jr.) (1959)
The Points of My Compass (1962)
The Trumpet of the Swan (1970)
Letters of E. B. White (1976)
Essays of E. B. White (1977)
Poems and Sketches of E. B. White (1981)
Writings from "The New Yorker" (1990)
In the Words of E. B. White (2011)
Every Day is Saturday
Quo Vadimus?
The Fox of Peapack
Farewell to Model T
An E. B. White Reader. Edited by William W. Watt and Robert W. Bradford.

References

1. ↑ United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Elwyn Brooks White, 1917-1918.
2. ↑ United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940 Elwyn Brooks White, ; citing Military Service.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} United States Social Security Death Index, Elwyn White, Oct 1985; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File
4. ↑ United States Census, 1900 Elwyn B White in household of Samuel T White, Mt. Vernon City Ward 4, Westchester, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 89, sheet 5B, family 89
5. ↑ New York State Census, 1905, Elwyn B White in household of Samuel T White, Mount Vernon, Ward 05, E.D. 01, Westchester, New York; citing p. 20, line 7, various county clerk offices, New York
6. ↑ United States Census, 1910, Elwyn White in household of Samuel T White, Mt Vernon Ward 5, Westchester, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 195, sheet 8A, family 136
7. ↑ United States Census, 1920, Elwin White in household of Samuel L White, Mount Vernon Ward 5, Westchester, New York, United States; citing ED 101, sheet 16A, line 39, family 261
8. ↑ United States Census, 1940, Elwyn Brooks White, Brooklin Town, Hancock, Maine, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 5-10, sheet 7A, line 25, family 158, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940
9. ↑ Maine Death Index, 1960-1996 Elwyn B White, 01 Oct 1985; citing Death, Brooklin, city code 09050, certificate 8508539, Maine State Archives, Augusta.
10. ↑ Find A Grave, memorial page for E. B. White (11 Jul 1899–1 Oct 1985), Find a Grave Memorial no. 6823305, citing Brooklin Cemetery, Brooklin, Hancock County, Maine, USA.

• E.B. White at Wikipedia
• Mitgang, Herbert. "Obituary: E.B. White, Essayist and Stylist, Dies." The New York Times, 2 October 1985; available online at archive.nytimes.com.
• Angell, Roger. "Andy". The New Yorker (periodical), 14 February 2005, available at www.newyorker.com (profile of E. B. White by his step-son Roger Angell).