E.B. and me

When I think about my favorite writers, one man's work has seemed to follow me from the time I learned to read until the time college professors took away my leisure-reading time. Elwyn Brooks White has stayed on my reading list since the third grade when I read The Trumpet of the Swan. For those of you who played video games during your childhood instead of reading, I will summarize.

The Trumpet of the Swan is about a cygnet named Louis, who tragically was born without a voice, making him a failure in the swan world. But with the help of a boy named Sam, he learns to read, write, and play some smooth jazz on the trumpet. 



White also wrote classics such as Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. Even George Bush thinks you should know about good ol' E.B. The man is, in short, a big freaking deal. 



Most recently, E.B. has popped up on my required reading list for editing in The Elements of Style. But why is this man my journalistic hero?

 Well, besides the fact that he can write anything from witty perspectives on life for the New Yorker to entertaining children's literature, his work continues to encourage the precision and clarity of language.

White's literature has encouraged my interest in reading and writing as a child and an adult. Both of these skills are crucial for any individual.

White may not have lived to see the iGeneration, but children and adults still look to his writings for inspiration. 

Any writer whose work encourages a child to pick up a real book instead of reading it on a laptop or listening to someone else read it on their iPod is a hero in my opinion.

Writers like White keep children, and adults for that matter, interested in reading and using their imagination to form ideas and images when they could be staring mindlessly at YouTube.



So, E.B., you've kept me hooked for more than 10 years now. You helped form my consciousness and my imagination. If you weren't dead I'd give you a hug…but, you are. So this blog is dedicated to you, essayist, grammarian and swan trumpeter of genius.