578 books
—
335 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Essays of E.B. White” as Want to Read:
Essays of E.B. White
by
The classic collection by one of the greatest essayists of our time.
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
December 12th 2006
by Harper Perennial Modern Classics
(first published May 16th 1936)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30

Oct 22, 2018
Diane Barnes
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
slow-reads,
favorites
These essays are the reason I love reading essays to begin with. Five or ten minutes in the company of Mr. White's opinions, written by the master stylist that he is, leaves me feeling happy, refreshed, relaxed, and most of the time, amused. They are wonderful and he wrote a lot of them during his time at the New Yorker, so I don't have to stop with this book.

There is really no way for a man to put his arms around a big house plant and still remain a gentleman.
E.B. White’s name, along with Will Strunk’s, is now synonymous with good style. If that isn’t a compliment to a writer, I don’t know what is.
My first encounter with the duo was in my high school English class of junior year. My teacher was old-fashioned enough to believe that we should learn how to use punctuation. This came as a shock, since none of her predecessors had spared so much as a ...more

From the author of Charlotte's Web, this collection of essays is as powerful as it is original, and definitely a classic in every sense of the word.

Like the majority of American liberal artists, I know E.B. White principally from his editorial work. The Elements of Style was the principal explicit force behind my own understanding of the sentence and the essay, and I assumed its writer would possess that bright cogency that tickles the alert reader into giggles.
I also knew E.B. White as the author of books for children, and though it has been nearly two decades since I read Charlotte's Web, I remember vividly the story and the prematurely ...more
I also knew E.B. White as the author of books for children, and though it has been nearly two decades since I read Charlotte's Web, I remember vividly the story and the prematurely ...more

Especially for "Mr Forbush's Friends...."
-----------
Ok, wow. So many observations, some made eight decades ago, are still relevant. The very first, about how 'stuff' accumulates so that when one tries to move to a new home one has to take the time to review one's life, is gorgeous. ("Good-Bye to Forty-Eighth Street") That whole first section, on farming, is a must-read for fans of Michael Perry. The tale of his trip to Alaska, as a callow youth in the early 20s, is memorable. There are some refe ...more
-----------
Ok, wow. So many observations, some made eight decades ago, are still relevant. The very first, about how 'stuff' accumulates so that when one tries to move to a new home one has to take the time to review one's life, is gorgeous. ("Good-Bye to Forty-Eighth Street") That whole first section, on farming, is a must-read for fans of Michael Perry. The tale of his trip to Alaska, as a callow youth in the early 20s, is memorable. There are some refe ...more

Keep in mind that usually I do not enjoy either essays or short stories, but here the writing is exceptional. It is this that makes all the difference.
The essays cover many different topics, such as the art of writing, appreciation of life’s small delights, wildlife (animals, flowers, birds), books and authors such as The Lives and Times of Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis, Henry David Thoreau aand The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr., trips to Alaska and Florida, the tribulations of a ...more
The essays cover many different topics, such as the art of writing, appreciation of life’s small delights, wildlife (animals, flowers, birds), books and authors such as The Lives and Times of Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis, Henry David Thoreau aand The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr., trips to Alaska and Florida, the tribulations of a ...more

Jan 15, 2019
Terri
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
writer-e-b-white,
non-fiction-essays
"Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White is one my favorite books from childhood and thinking about the book continues to give me a warm feeling. He wrote for the magazine "The New Yorker" starting in 1927 where he met his wife who edited his work. Some of the witty and descriptive essays in this book appeared in different publications as well as the "New Yorker." Reading this book is a pleasure and treat in every way. Charming book. Highly recommend.

Here are some of the opening sentences found in this collection of essays.
To come upon an article in the Times called "The Meaning of Brown Eggs" was an unexpected pleasure.
Someone told me the other day that a seagull won't eat a smelt.
I spent several days and nights in mid-September with an ailing pig.
Mosquitoes have arrived with the warm nights, and our bedchamber is their theater under the stars.
I wasn't really prepared for the World's Fair last week, and it certainly wasn't prepared for ...more
To come upon an article in the Times called "The Meaning of Brown Eggs" was an unexpected pleasure.
Someone told me the other day that a seagull won't eat a smelt.
I spent several days and nights in mid-September with an ailing pig.
Mosquitoes have arrived with the warm nights, and our bedchamber is their theater under the stars.
I wasn't really prepared for the World's Fair last week, and it certainly wasn't prepared for ...more

Yo, Goodreads I.T. - give me the opportunity to give half-stars! It's like...2017 or something. This book is a classic 3.5 stars. When forced to round, I must round down.
Mr. White was a wonderful essayist. This particular collection contains more than a few gems but is too inconsistent to make the entire volume a ' must read.' Yet, even as I write that last sentence, I doubt myself for I did enjoy the book and am quite thankful that I read it.
I will say that this collection has inspired me to ...more
Mr. White was a wonderful essayist. This particular collection contains more than a few gems but is too inconsistent to make the entire volume a ' must read.' Yet, even as I write that last sentence, I doubt myself for I did enjoy the book and am quite thankful that I read it.
I will say that this collection has inspired me to ...more

If you occasionally find your foot lost of its purchase on the bicycle pedal while speeding down a death-defying San Francisco hill - minus the bicycle and minus the hill - then the essays of E.B. White should be immediately looked into. White's work is thoroughly grounding. Whether he's enumerating the pleasures of his Home Crawford 8-20 wood-burning kitchen stove, his boulder in the pasture woods where he retreats when he's disenchanted or frightened, his geese, his pig, the local raccoon, his
...more

I took my time reading these essays, one at a time, over the past summer. It ended up being one of the best reading experiences I've had.
To quote E.B. White - "As a writing man, or secretary, I have always felt charged with the safekeeping of all unexpected items of worldly and unworldly enchantment, as though I might be held personally responsible if even a small one were to be lost."
That's exactly the thought behind each of these pieces, and reading them, you're always anxious to discover whic ...more
To quote E.B. White - "As a writing man, or secretary, I have always felt charged with the safekeeping of all unexpected items of worldly and unworldly enchantment, as though I might be held personally responsible if even a small one were to be lost."
That's exactly the thought behind each of these pieces, and reading them, you're always anxious to discover whic ...more

It turns out E. B. White is clever, warm, and eloquent-- as the writer of Elements of Style ought to be. He writes about pretty much everything: books, politics, the city, the country, his rattletrap car, the debate on brown vs. white eggs, all with both ease and conviction.
"All that I ever hope to say in books is that I love the world. I guess you can find it there, if you dig around." That's what E. B. White has to say for himself. And if you don't love the world already, reading these essays ...more
"All that I ever hope to say in books is that I love the world. I guess you can find it there, if you dig around." That's what E. B. White has to say for himself. And if you don't love the world already, reading these essays ...more

I like Charlotte's Web but, I feel like the majority of his other writing is dry.
Read for class.
Read for class.

E.B. White may best be known as the author of Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web, but he had a prolific writing career. In this collection he has chosen his favorite selections to include from a lifetime of writing. He based his selections on his own enjoyment upon re-reading and on their durability.
The selections here are varied and cover White's time in Maine, Florida and New York. White experienced life both on a small farm and in the big cities and essays of both are included here. They are p ...more
The selections here are varied and cover White's time in Maine, Florida and New York. White experienced life both on a small farm and in the big cities and essays of both are included here. They are p ...more

I am continually amazed by and incredibly appreciative of E.B. White's writing, no matter whether his subject is spiders, pigs, roofing the barn, hurricanes, or war. He started writing essays around 1930 and continued for decades; his children's fiction was published about 70 years ago, and his writing is still relevant today and has so much to offer current readers.
Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down. Children are demanding. They are th...more

I knew this would be a five-star book after reading the very first line. I often find that a large amount of non-fiction books are written by people who White calls (himself included), "sustained by the childish belief that everything he or she thinks is of general interest." So White admits this elephant in the room straight away, so you can get on with reading the rest of his works. It is quite amazing how, though he wrote closer over half a century ago, many of the ideas he discusses are stil
...more

‘We had been having an unseasonable spell of weather—hot, close days, with the fog shutting in every night, scaling for a few hours in midday, then creeping back again at dark, drifting in first over the trees on the point, then suddenly blowing across the fields, blotting out the world and taking possession of houses, men, and animals. Everyone kept hoping for a break, but the break failed to come. Next day was another hot one.’
‘I hung up. My throat felt dry and I went to the cupboard and got a ...more
‘I hung up. My throat felt dry and I went to the cupboard and got a ...more

I picked up this book for three reasons: simple booklust; my life-long infatuation with E.B. White's writing; and the inclusion of the essay "Here is New York."
In the preface, White wrote of "Here is New York" that it had been seriously affected by the passage of time, and that the city he described in the summer of 1948 seemed to him to have disappeared and been reborn. But a lot of it still sounds right to me.
Here, then, are the opening lines of "Here is New York":
"On any person who desires s ...more
In the preface, White wrote of "Here is New York" that it had been seriously affected by the passage of time, and that the city he described in the summer of 1948 seemed to him to have disappeared and been reborn. But a lot of it still sounds right to me.
Here, then, are the opening lines of "Here is New York":
"On any person who desires s ...more

i read this to learn how it's done when it's done in finest form. i read this to shout hallelujah at the end of a marvelous sentence, or at the choice of a word that takes my breath away. i read this to wipe tears from my cheeks. i read this to laugh out loud and mercilessly.
this book is the holy mecca for those of us who can't stop believing in the power of word to burrow deep within the human heart and take us hostage, to clomp onto a brain cell and draw pictures we've never seen before. the ...more
this book is the holy mecca for those of us who can't stop believing in the power of word to burrow deep within the human heart and take us hostage, to clomp onto a brain cell and draw pictures we've never seen before. the ...more

I had a difficult time rating this book. There were a handful of essays I really liked--mostly the autobiographical ones. I always think of EBW as a kind grandfatherly figure, but he lived quite the eclectic, adventurous, activist life. He is the "White" in Strunk and White's"Elements of Style." I often thought of his political essays -- the more things change the more they stay the same. However there were many essays that just didn't seem relevant or interesting to me. When I did a mathematica
...more

I am not an essay fan or a short fan but you cannot get better than E. B. White's essays. I can't believe I've gone 65 years without anyone suggesting I read them. They're fabulous and in both political and environmental they're unfortunately very much on target. Sometimes it was hard to believe I was reading a piece written 50 plus years ago and not written recently.
I highly recommend them to anyone.
I highly recommend them to anyone.

E.B. White is so good at describing the seemingly-mundane, not in a way that transforms it into something magical, but in a way that simply brings to light all that is actually going on in the world around us. I want to develop his poetically scientific (or is that scientifically poetic?) eye and appetite for what the world has to offer. It's damn near spiritual.

E. B. White was a great essayist. If you want to spend a month reading an essay every morning I highly recommend this book. Whether it was observations of life on the farm and by the sea in Maine, or the ever changing world of New York in the 1930's - 60's, White does a masterful job of describing what he sees and experiences. Read this.

"When my wife's Aunt Caroline was in her nineties, she lived with us, and she once remarked: 'Remembrance is sufficient of the beauty we have seen.' I cherish the remembrance of the beauty I have seen."
One of the purest, loveliest writers I've ever encountered. This was worth the time it took to read, and I have a feeling I'll be dipping into it again and again.
One of the purest, loveliest writers I've ever encountered. This was worth the time it took to read, and I have a feeling I'll be dipping into it again and again.

It took me so long to finish this book, because I didn't want it to end. Having acquired several more books of this lovely man's writing, I finally braved the final essay. E.B. White is without a doubt one of my favorite writers. In fact, I'm still humming 'Getting to Know You', even though, alas, he has not been with us since 1985. E.B. White was a writer for The New Yorker magazine from its beginning in 1925; however,even before that he was quite the adventurer. One of the most delightful and
...more

Having just finished reading "The Essays of E.B. White", I feel as though I have lost a friend. I can't recall ever feeling so sad at finishing a book-- not because the book itself was sad, but because it was wonderful, and its author was wonderful. I grew up with White's three children's books-- which I still love now as an adult-- but I had only read one of his essays ("Once More to the Lake") before this. To be fair, I will admit that I didn't love every bit of every single essay, but every e
...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Elwyn Brooks White was a leading American essayist, author, humorist, poet and literary stylist and author of such beloved children's classics as Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan. He graduated from Cornell University in 1921 and, five or six years later, joined the staff of The New Yorker magazine. He authored over seventeen books of prose and poetry and was elected to t
...more
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.”
—
162 likes
“The subtlest change in New York is something people don't speak much about but that is in everyone's mind. The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions. The intimation of mortality is part of New York now: in the sound of jets overhead, in the black headlines of the latest edition. (Written in 1949, 22 years before the World Trade Center was completed.)”
—
34 likes
More quotes…