LETTERS OF NOTE: E. B. White on Why He Writes

Around this time last year I did a post about Charlotte's Web author E. B. White, answering a letter from a loyal fan about when his next book was coming out. Today we return to White, and to his most famous work specifically.
Charlotte's Web was published in October 1952 to very favourable reviews, and it remains a children's classic to this day. But a few weeks before it was published, White received a letter from his editor Ursula Nordstrom, enquiring as to the inspiration for his book and looking for material that could be used in the publicity campaign. White responded with a letter detailing his encounter with a young group of spiders, which you can read in full here. It's rather touching.
http://magazine.uc.edu/content/dam/magazine/images/famous/movies/CharlotteWeb.jpg
You can read my previous post on E. B. White here. If you're wanting to see his story on the big screen, I recommend the 1973 animation over the recent 2006 live-action version. And if you haven't read the book yet - you really should.

Daniel

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