A Legend by Right

A Legend by Right

During his lifetime, many young readers asked Mr. White if his stories were true. In a letter written to be sent to his fans, he answered, "No, they are imaginary tales... But real life is only one kind of life -- there is also the life of the imagination." (www.scholastic.com)

When White was a child he exhibited a gift for storytelling. When he would go on walks, he would notice different things that would peak his imagination he would jot down the different ideas to come up with story lines for his nieces and nephews. White was raised in the city and when he would visit the relatives who lived in the country and see the animals move about the farm, the experiences differed from that he had in the city. The influence that he receives going between the city and the country enabled him to incorporate these visions into his writing.

White, born Elwyn Brooks White on July 11, 1899, to Samuel Tilly White a piano manufacturer, and Jessie Hart along with two brothers and three sisters lived in Mount Vernon, New York. While growing up, White attends the local public school even though the family was comfortably well off (www.notablebiographies.com). After graduating from high school, White pursued his dream of writing by graduating from Cornell University in 1921 with a degree in Journalism.

Upon completing Cornell University, E. B. White went on to work for several different newspaper agencies until he was offered a position at the New York Times were he was able to publish some of his short stories and poetry. While working here in 1929, White fell in love with Katharine Sergeant Angell, the editor they married and later had a son. White, stayed at the New York Times however, he still was not fulfilling his dreams of becoming a writer. In 1945, White decided to enter a new field writing children literature. His first book Stuart Little, was a big success for him. A story about human parents giving birth to a mouse impressed on us that people are different and it is okay to think on ourselves as different or odd. Because, even though Stuart was different, his parents never treated him any different from their other son and showed him that he could still have a good life. While reading this story, I found an interesting correlation between White and this story because, he is a small man and he wrote about a character that is a small mouse.

In 1952, White wrote another book called Charlotte's Web, and in this story, he tells us about a pig name Wilbur who is the runt in the litter. This story takes place in a barn where White and his family are living in North Brooklyn, Maine. WWilbur the main character is helped by a spider to keep it from going to the butcher shop. White, who lived on a farm in his later years and had some animals, walked past his barn one day looked up and saw a grey spider in the crack between of the doorsill feet moving as she weaved a web was intrigued by the action incorporated this scene into his book. At that moment White, realized the importance of helping one another and the meaning of friendship.

In 1970, White wrote The Trumpet of the Swan, this story is about a swan named Louis who could not talk because he had a speech defect, the father shows persistence by not giving up until he has something that Louis can use as a voice. Therefore, he comes up with the idea of Louis a swan playing a trumpet.

"Ko-hoh!" he blew. "Ko-hoh, ko-hoh!" The sound carried-a wild, clear,

stirring call. Everybody back at the ranch heard it and was thrilled by the

sound of the trumpet. It was like no other sound they had ever heard. It

reminded them of all the wild and wonderful things and places they had

ever known: sunsets and moonrises and mountain peaks and

...