Childhood and Young Adulthood
His father had a piano manufacturing company. We learned that from a book. They lived near the water, had boat houses. They came from New York.
Every child in the school was required to give a speech or recite poem. E.B. White really dreaded it. But usually the term ended before the W's were called because that's the end of the alphabet. However he always spent the year worrying about it. Whenever he got awards or was asked to go and speak, he was too embarrassed to go and give the speech. He would write the speech and give it to someone else to read. (To the Point)
When he was little, he had allergy problems. The pollen was a huge problem so when he was little, he came to the Belgrade Lakes. There wasn't as much pollen and it was his families summer home. That was how he really began to like Maine.
He wrote for his college newspaper ("Cornell Daily Sun" at Cornell University) As a matter of fact, the people at the newspaper started calling him Andy because Andy White was the president of the university. Because of a good test score, he won a $600 scholarship.
Brooklin, Maine
The garden at the Friend Public Library Brooklin is being made in memory of E. B. White. He and Katharine lived near the library; he gave the library the two original pictures of Stuart Little by Garth Williams; and we saw them. There was also a picture of a girl on the beach painted by Waldo Pierce that hung over the fireplace. E.B. White gave this picture to the Friend Library. Katharine helped out at the library. (For more information about this library and the Whites see Gretchen Volenik's article.)
The librarian had books that were personally signed by EB White. For a long time they had the books in circulation, but this year they stopped because the librarian's friend said that anyone could take the book and lose it; so now they keep them at the library.
The house was a pretty house, and was big. There are beautiful gardens there because Katharine would get down in the garden, in whatever clothes she had on, whenever she wanted. The gardens were really nice. You could tell that they were well loved.