E.B. White

Born just outside of New York City in Mount Vernon during the turn, Elwyn Brooks White was raised by parents with artistic inclinations. After a stint in the army, White enrolled in Cornell University and pursued journalism, a field that he continued in during his initial post-collegiate years. Settling in Manhattan in 1924, he soon became intent on getting his writing into an upstart publication known as The New Yorker. Not only did White join the magazine's staff, he also married its literary editor, Katharine Angell. White's thoughtful and often humorous essays helped to define the publication's refined style, his reputation growing along with that of the magazine. In 1929, White collaborated with fellow humorist James Thurber on Is Sex Necessary? Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do, a cheeky (and relatively tame) book that sent up romantic relationships. He branched out to pen a column for Harper's in the late 1930s, but remained largely devoted to The New Yorker, while also working with his wife on the anthology A Subtreasury of American Humor (1941). In 1945, White stepped outside his comfort zone to pen Stuart Little, a novel geared towards kids that sported the elegant drawings of artist Garth Williams. Following the exploits of a talking mouse brought up by a human family in Manhattan, the book eventually garnered a sizable audience. This led to 1952's Charlotte's Web, another Williams-illustrated story involving verbose animals that won even more fans, thanks to the endearing bond formed by a little pig named Wilbur and his unlikely spider friend. A few years later, White wrote for a very different crowd when he collaborated with his mentor, William Strunk Jr., to unveil the 1959 edition of The Elements of Style, a highly influential writing guide. In 1970, White returned to the world of children's literature for The Trumpet of the Swan, a touching tale of the friendship between a boy and a horn-playing bird, and, like its predecessors, it received numerous accolades, becoming another kids' classic. Seven years later, White's wife, Katharine, died, and, always a private man, he spent his remaining retirement at their farm on the Maine coast.White died in 1985, but his stories have lived on, apart from on the page, in various film adaptations. The author himself narrated the Oscar-nominated animated short "The Family That Dwelt Apart" (1973), which was based on one of his stories. The same year, Hanna-Barbera released a full-length animated version of Charlotte's Web, with Debbie Reynolds voicing the gentle title character. White apparently provided some input prior to production, but was unhappy with the final film, largely because of the musical numbers, which he found intrusive. Despite his qualms, the movie went on to be adored by many as a family-friendly favorite.White's work wasn't approached for another screen interpretation until the late '90s, with up-and-coming filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan cowriting a 1999 feature take on Stuart Little that mixed live action with CGI animation. The movie fared well both financially and critically, prompting two film sequels and an animated series that lasted only 13 episodes. A lackluster cartoon of "The Trumpet of the Swan" saw the light of day in 2001, and an ill-advised sequel to "Charlotte's Web" was released in 2003, including more songs that White surely would have hated. However, he may have had a slightly better opinion of the 2006 live-action/CGI version of the book, which featured Dakota Fanning as Wilbur's human champion, Fern, and Julia Roberts as the voice of everyone's favorite arachnid, Charlotte.