Attempted Bloggery: The Letters of E. B. White

Showing posts with label The Letters of E. B. White. Show all posts

Sunday, September 30, 2018

E. B. White Needs No Introduction

When you're a famous writer, everyone wants you to write a little something for them. When everyone wants you to write a little something for them, you need to be able to politely decline at least some of their offers. An uncollected 1967 letter from famous writer E. B. White politely declines such an offer with some eloquence, but also with an abiding sadness.

E. B. White
TLS, November 2, 1967

A page from the New Yorker

E. B. White
eBay Listing Ended July 12,2015

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-E-B-White-typed-letter-hand-signed-on-New-Yorker-letterhead-1967-/111711460579?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1a02859ce3&nma=true&si=Zv4PhLp6HocGRC23iqci2JeQ2LI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

E. B. White
eBay Item Description

E. B. White
eBay Bid History
Six bids from three bidders, each of whom was active in the final minute of the auction.

Note: I would like to hear from anyone who can identify this letter's recipient Mr. Lowe or the book he asked E. B. White to introduce. The historical record presented in this eBay listing is far from complete.

Also incomplete, evidently, are the collected letters of E. B. White. Readers who would like to help me remedy this situation, at least in part, are invited to share correspondence from the great stylist. Scans and photographs of his letters, especially of uncollected letters such as this one, are welcome here. My blog is at your disposal.

I don't have as much here as I'd like, but feel free to check out the archives for a few choice blog posts about E. B. White and even about Charlotte's Web illustrator Garth Williams.

TLS stands for typed letter, signed. If you're British, it also stands for the Times Literary Supplement. I am not British.

More Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

The Letters of E. B. White

The New Yorker

Attempted Bloggery's Flipping Index

02693

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

A Letter from E. B. White About The Letters of E. B. White

After the publication of The Letters of E. B. White in 1976, the New Yorker's William Walden wrote to White, noting especially a passage about the publication of Stuart Little and recalling his own frustrating experience trying to publish a children's book. Walden goes on to list the errors he found in the book's first printing in the hopes that they might be corrected in future editions. White's entertaining but sobering response says much about the financial realities of the publishing industry, which trump any possibility of publishing corrections. "A real romance, the publishing life!"