Many young readers are
familiar with Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan. Charlotte, Fern and Wilbur; Stuart and
Margalo; Louis, Serena and Sam – these are characters not soon forgotten once
met in E. B. White’s fiction. Themes of affection, friendship, loss, optimism,
personal dignity and nature’s cycles – all evoke a quiet lust for life and
are among the enduring elements that mark White’s books. Just who was this well
loved American writer? In Some Writer! The Story of E. B. White, author and artist Melissa Sweet provides a superb
introduction through copious artifacts, letters and photos as well as numerous excerpts from White’s writings over much of his
life. Sweet weaves episodes from White’s
life together in her own perceptive narrative; every page is rich with artwork
that draws us to a closer observation of just what it was White was considering. We learn that White was in love with words from the very beginning, even
winning awards for pieces he submitted for publication as a lad. That passion
never abated throughout his career writing for The New Yorker and other publications, his books for adults and those
for young people. He also had a passion for Maine, rooted in the summers he
spent as a child with his family in the Belgrade Lakes region. E. B. White did
not love speaking or attending events, preferring time spent with his writing
or with family, farm or friends. In learning the origins of his three classic
novels for children, readers will find at the core a great affection for his home
turf and his imaginary characters. White wrote, he said, for an audience of
one: himself. The integrity of that process is, perhaps, what makes his work so
universal and so appealing. An author’s note from Sweet, an afterword by White’s
granddaughter Martha White, and a timeline complete a wonderful biography of a
modest man who said that when he was a child he considered an author “a
mythical being…The book was the thing, not the man behind the book.” Sweet
chose this quote from White to head her final chapter: “All that I hope to say
in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world. I guess you
can find that in there, if you dig around.” Ages 9 to adult.
