WRITING ABOUT CHARLOTTE'S WEB
WRITING ABOUT STUART LITTLE
Stuart Little, Published in 1945
Children wrote to Mr. White, asking about ending; they wanted to know if Stuart ever found Margalo. SATA reports that :
"They are good questions but I did not answer them in the book because, in a way, Stuart's journey symbolizes the continuing journey that everybody takes - in search of what is perfect and unattainable. This is perhaps too elusive an idea to put into a book for children, but I put it in anyway." p. 234.
(Lucien Agosta says that Stuart Little is an interesting mix of close-up and far away views. Actually Andy White started to write children's books because his nieces and nephews wanted him to tell them stories and he couldn't seem to do that off the top of his head. So he started keeping some chapters in his desk drawer for the next time the children asked. You will probably notice that all three of E.B. White's heros started life in a rather defenseless state - a mouse-boy, a runt and a mute swan, but each marvelously overcame his handicap.
Mrs. G. )
WRITING ABOUT CHARLOTTE'S WEB
His farm inspired him to write about a pig. He didn't like it that people killed pigs. He wrote it in the boat house in which he had a typewriter, table, and wooden bench and a window that he designed. Because sketches helped him to write he had a sketch of the Zuckerman barn beside the typewriter.
When asked why he wrote Charlotte's Web E.B. White smiled. "I don't really know why." he answered. But I haven't told why I sneeze either. A book is a sneeze." p. 55 of To the Point : A story about E.B. White.
In the book we got in Blue Hill, E.B. White: Some Writer there was a picture of the first original page of Charlotte's Web, totally different from the first page that there is now. Garth Williams and EB White first planned to make Charlotte like a human face with smiley features but decided that it wouldn't work. Actually he spent a year studying spiders before he had Charlotte just right.
Trumpet of the Swan:
E. B. White was always fascinated with hatching of eggs.
There is a sign at the Philadelphia Zoo showing were Serena and Louis courted. Philadelphia Orchestra performed the story in a concert. (That's why there are so many references on the web!) When E. B. White was invited to the first performance, he said that he'd only come if he could play an instrument. They called his bluff and offered to have him play the triangle - but he wiggled out of that "performance" too. (Gherman p. 114)
Late in life
Whenever he wished for a break he'd ride down the roads into Brooklin on his ten speed bike. The greenhouse was built for Katharine when she was in the hospital for congestive heart failure. Every day he took flowers there and later planted the oak tree over her grave. (Gherman p. 120)
When we went to search for Katharine's grave, Lauren remembered that Catherine's grave was under a oak tree. We looked for an oak tree, but there was none in the graveyard. So we asked the librarian where their grave was, and it ended up it was in the back.
There was a mysterious grave near their grave, that said Trapp Wilbur, that had a picture of a lighthouse and under it was longitude and latitude. We are not sure whose grave it was. Greta thought it meant that EB White had a pig when he was little, called Trapp, that he based Wilbur on. This is a guess. Other people think that it might be a sailor friend of theirs who might have got in an accident at sea; or maybe not even a friend or relation at all.
When he was little he loved riding his bike and doing tricks on it. He could even ride backwards on the handle bars. We found a wonderful story in an old newspaper about E. B. White that happened when he was 73. He left the Brooklin Post Office at 10: 30 AM and delivered a piece of mail to Robert Burnham in thirty minutes. It was a hard trip because the temperature was only 18 degrees and he had to face a "stiff head wind." He wanted to show that when he was riding his bike he could deliver faster than the U.S. Post Office. There had been a new regulation that sent all the mail to Bangor to be sorted. (It was a 123 mile round trip). The Ellsworth American (Thurs. Dec. 21, 1972. ) reports the contents of the letter which, they suspect, had an assist from our famous writer.
Dear Bob,
After you left the store this morning, I found a dollar bill lying on the counter. I know it's yours because there was nobody else in the store at the time. I'm dropping it in the mail for you right away, with this letter. They say a dollar doesn't go far these days, but this one will go all the way to Bangor before it gets to you and Bangor is quite a distance, considering that you live only two miles up the road from here.
Knowing that you and Ruby are planning a shopping trip, I am taking the precaution of dispatching another dollar in a direct course to your mailbox. I have engaged an old man on a bicycle to carry it. He is an aging writer - feeble but plucky. He says he has arthritis, and dizzy spells, which is why he likes to ride his cycle in winter. When I mentioned that snow is predicted, he just shrugged. I think he will make it to your mailbox all right, as he is a direct sort of fellow -- not the kind of man who would go to North Brooklin by way of Bangor. A Bangor trip would tucker him out; he'd never last. He's an odd sort, anyway -- comes into the store and never buys anything but domestic sardines and a marking pencil. He has lived around here for forty years, but nobody really gets to know him or call him by his first name. Anyway, he will soon be on his with the dollar, and I hope you and Ruby can find a good use for it on your shopping trip. Al Ormondroyd,
Brooklin General Store.