Essays of E. B. White
by E. B. White · first published 1977
5mentions
2recommended by
3HN commenters
2016–2021first – last mentioned
67% recommend33% neutral
When E.B. White received the Gold Medal for Essays and Criticism from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the following citation, here quoted in part, accompanied the award: "If we are remembered as a civilized era, I think it will be partly because of E.B. White. The historians of the future will decide that a writer of such grace and control could not have been produced by a generation wholly lacking in such qualities, and we will shine by reflection in his gentle light. "Of all the gifts he has given us in his apparently casual essays, the best gift is himself. He has permitted
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…called The Railroad that describes how the railroads and the government worked together to cripple US passenger rail. It isn't online, but I found a blog post[1] discussing it. It's also in the collection Essays of E.B. White which I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys perspicuous prose. The gist of the essay is that the railroads incrementally made the passenger experience worse and then as demand declined they used the…
on “DEA agents conduct surprise searches of Amtrak passengers” ↗…not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell." - - - If you enjoy the essay form, I highly recommend the "Essays of E.B. White" (yes, the same White of The Elements of Style). Some of the essays stay with you for a long time. https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060932237/essays-of-e-b-wh...
on “The Lesson to Unlearn” ↗On the essay form, I don't yet see a mention of the excellent Essays of E. B. White[1]. Yes, the same one from 'Strunk and White' of The Elements of Style. Two essays that I still vividly remember from the book (both were written around 1940s): (1) Coon Tree (2) Death of a Pig These…
on “How to Write Usefully” ↗…case passenger rail travel in the USA was cheap and ubiquitous, because it went everywhere the mail did. E.B. White has a wonderful little essay[1] about it. The full text can be found in the excellent Essays of E.B. White[2]. [1] http://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=91313 [2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/394616.Essays_of_E_B_Whi...
on “The future of long-haul trucking in Europe is electric” ↗…from Google books, I would think that has been scanned, but it appears not: https://www.google.no/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=e+b+white+essay... I also came across an old note on another essay collection, "Essays of E.B. White" - from his own foreword: "The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest. He is a fellow…
on “How to Write Articles and Essays Quickly and Expertly (2006)” ↗