E B White's Birthday July 11th

E. B. White

July 11, 1899 - October 1, 1985

I just reread a favorite childhood book, Charlotte's Web, and am happy to celebrate E. B. White's birthday today. He was born in Mount Vernon, N.Y. on July 11, 1899. His full name was Elwyn Brooks White, and he confessed to never liking the name Elwyn. At Cornell, he was given the nickname Andy. Most of us know him as E. B. White, author of Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, The Trumpet of the Swan, and as co-author/reviser of William Strunk's Elements of Style. He was also a contributor to the New Yorker magazine from the late 1920s, where he met his wife, writer and editor Katharine Sergeant Angell.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, the National Medal for Literature in 1971, and a special Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for his entire body of work. He lived much of his life in North Brooklin, Maine and died at his home there on October 1, 1985.