E.B. White

E.B. White has produced a number of classic pieces that are essential to the genre of children's literature.
E. B White was born in Mount Vernon, New York to Jessie ( Hart) White in July of 1899. His writing career did not begin until after graduating from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1921. He worked initially as an editor for the Cornell Daily Sun and then became a member of the Quill and Dagger society and a writer for The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post Intelligencer. White even worked as an ad man before returning to New York City in 1924. It was just one year later that White published his first article in The New Yorker, and it was at the magazine that White's writing career began to take speed.

It wasn't until the 1930's that White turned over to children's literature in honor of his niece, Janice Hart White. Stuart Little was published in 1945, and Charlotte's Web followed in 1952. White's last children's story, Trumpet of the Swan, was not published until 1970. White's classic stories won many awards. Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award while The Trumprt of the Swan was awarded with the Sequoyah Award and the William Allen White Award.

Another one of White's major contributions with literature derives mainly from grammatical handbook entitled, The Elements of Style. The particular handbook was published in 1959 and contained the dos and don'ts for writers. The work is still utilized and still remains a required reading in some composition and English classes.