Product Description

A delightful, witty, spirited collection of short pieces and essays by the inimitable E. B. White.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #282138 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-07
• Released on: 2006-11-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780060921231
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Three years after E. B. White's death, Rebecca Dale discovered a cache of his New Yorker writings that had yet to be collected. There's certainly nothing mediocre about these 161 pieces, which range from nature vignettes (a New York City sparrow extols urban life) to musings on language, business, and liberty. White's 1953 fantasia of visiting Thoreau's Walden Pond with Joseph McCarthy is peerless. "Wait a minute!" the senator realizes. "This man was Communist-inspired. That accounts for his sour attitude about housing--" The satire is strong, but so is the celebration. A short piece on a skating fest ends: "Ice is an odd substance to have at last freed the body in its persistent attempt to catch up with the spirit." And speaking of which, in "Fred On Space" White asks his dead dachshund how he feels about the first dog launched by the Russians. Fred is far from impressed: "The excuse you men give is that you must continually add to the store of human knowledge--a store that already resembles a supermarket and is beginning to hypnotize the customers."

From Library Journal
Essayist and author of such children's favorites as Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, White also served as an editorial writer for The New Yorker . Many of these short pieces have been included in this collection, which traces White's development as a writer from his short, almost flippant works of the Twenties and Thirties to the longer, more thoughtful and penetrating essays of the Forties and Fif ties. Wide-ranging in subject matter, these essays tackle such diverse subjects as Khrushchev, re volving doors, and Sunday drivers in New York, all with a sense of humor. Besides bringing all these gems together, this book offers a valuable historical perspective, especially of the Cold War years, and some lessons for our present-day leaders. Recommended for most libraries.
- Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Anything written by E. B. White must be cherished by writers and readers . . . . More than 150 of his unsigned pieces, mostly from the magazine's opening section, `Notes and Comment,' have been unearthed by Rebecca M. Dale for this delightful book." -- Herbert Mitgang, New York Times

Customer Reviews

Here's proof E. B. White had to work for a living.
"Writings from the New Yorker" is a poorly organized commercial re-packaging of E. B. White snippets banged-out under the pressures of deadlines in the work-a-day world. In spite of my respect for the man and my love of his more carefully crafted writings, this book sputtered and stalled as I read along.

But E. B. White does manage to shine through this collection in spite of its hodge-podginess and your reward for plowing through it will be the discovery of a gem here and there.

Were he still with us, White himself would likely have a field day editing this book, tossing out stuff. For one thing, his editors made him use "we" instead of "I" in these unsigned pieces which he objected to and which makes you wonder just how "handcuffed" he was in other unspoken ways as he wrote them.

If you're an E. B. White groupie who simply must read everything White has ever written, buy this book. Otherwise--save your money.

An odd collection of White's mediocre, dated, small pieces
I can't think of a book or collection of EB White's writing to which I wouldn't give high praise. Here, the writing is good (of course, it always is) but that the collection was put together by someone not in the writer's family or intimate (editorial) circle may explain why it seems a bit void of that quintessential EB White spirit. Understand, these are not essays or letters. These, for the most part, are very short pieces, most of which ran in The New Yorker as short, witty fillers or, as that genteel set liked to refer to them, "occasionals." Some, because they were written many decades ago ('30s and '40s) are dated. Some references or phrases are left unexplained, leaving this reader stumped. If you want to read classic EB White, aside form his children's classics, I recommend his "Essays" and "Letters," and "The Second Tree from the Corner." THESE are classics. This collection, on the other hand, demonstrates that, while EB White was always a top-notch writer, even the best have their mediocre days.

If this is the Great & Powerful E.B. White I think I'll pass.
If this is the Great & Powerful E.B. White I think I'll pass.

It's a collection of vignettes about everything and nothing. Ladles of words dipped from his stream of consciousness.

I was bored.