Talk:E. B. White

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 23 January 2019 and 15 May 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jtnelson00.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 19:57, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled

Hey Does anybody know any more important dates that are not on the E.B. White page...about well..E.B.White. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.166.190.151 (talk) 02:44, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

What high school did he attend? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.118.117.234 (talk) 18:12, 14 June 2005 (UTC)

It would be nice to get rid of all the passive voice and loose construction in this article! — Preceding unsigned comment added by MATinLA (talk • contribs) 09:06, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

sept 11 2001

The exerpt from the 1949 essay could just as easily be talking about dropping bombs. I don't see that mentioning sept 11 is necessary, and gives a prophetic nature to EB White as well.

Well, it's obviously about dropping bombs, given the era in which it was written. I myself think the whole thing should be removed, except, perhaps, for serving as an example of how gracefully and clearly he wrote. As for prophesizing 9/11, even in a random way, that is obviously complete nonsense. Hayford Peirce 16:56, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

The excerpted bit was a really nice example of not only how well he wrote, but how timeless his writing is: it expressed the vulnerability of a city like New York many years before that vulnerability became part of New York's history. Not prophetic, but exacting.

chronological conflict

It says here that EBWhite graduated from Cornell in 1921. Next it states he worked in Seattle for "several years" before returning to NY in 1924. That doesn't add up, ladies!

Cornell is in New York (Ithica, New York), and several means three or four. Seems to add up to me. TheScotch (talk) 09:23, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

Accent on White's name

Suggest a future version correct the accent on the 'e' of the name White in the biography section. It is shown as Whité multiple times in this section.

Colorado Opening?

Maybe I'm missing something, but why is the main section of the article titled "Colorado Opening?"

Update I changed it back to "Biography" and added a couple of citation requests. White is my favorite writer, I might take it upon myself to clean this up and add some sources in the near future. There are a few good tidbits missing.

EKM

Overhaul

This article needs a major rewrite. It doesn't follow an particular format and has become very difficult to read. Daly 00:49, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

E.B. White "liberal free-thinker"?

I'm not sure if E.B. White could be considered a liberal free-thinker, as described in the introducton to this article. Actually I don't know what it means to be a liberal or a free-thinker, but my intuition tells me from reading E.B. White's works that he was neither.

Consider this statement in the article "http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/03/lifetimes/white-essays.html" Appreciating E.B. White from the New York Times -

"In his politics he long ago came to stand for what many have admired about the Carter Administration: a tougher-minded attitude toward the Soviet Union, a respect for the absolute rights of human beings everywhere and a healthy skepticism for the liberal nostrum of universal disarmament. ("If modern weapons make war unlikely," Mr. White wrote in 1960, "had we not better keep them until we have found the political means of making war unnecessary?")"

I recommend striking the comment on E.B. White's political point of view, and while we are at it the rest of that sentence because it trivializes, over-simplifies and confuses.

A liberal free-thinker, White often wrote as an ironic onlooker, championing freedom of the individual.

Saying E.B. White wrote as an "ironic" onlooker means nothing, because that word without context, like the phrase "liberal free-thinker", means nothing, and in fact may be so muddled up in it's use to mean nothing even with a context. The comment about "championing freedom of the individual" brings to mind some sort of political activist, not E.B. White.

On a second note, as we all know, "The Elements of Style" is not E.B. White's book as implied in the first paragraph. E.B. White expanded and updated that book, but is not the original author. He pays tribute to it's author, his professor, William Strunk in the introduction and I would imagine - appreciate others doing the same.

I recommend changing that sentence to read -

His The writers' style guide, The Elements of Style, co-authored by E.B. White and William Strunk Jr., remains...

Are there any sources for White's views on religion? In Charlotte's Web, religion appears to be a form of human gullibility (Charlotte's writing is treated by everybody as a miracle) but the categories in this article call him an "American Christian". --62.25.109.195 (talk) 12:29, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Since religion is essentially cultural, this designation is nearly redundant. At the very least, it's using the term Christian in a contentious, insular, idiosyncratic manner, and the entire list needs to be removed from Wikipedia. TheScotch (talk) 09:37, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

Speaking of fatuous designations, I'm removing White from the "hypochondriacs" list until it can be shown that he was clinically diagnosed as such. TheScotch (talk)

Circle Outline?

Can anyone confirm that White is the inventor of a composition help called "The Circle Outline"? I've attributed it to him for 20 years. A quick Google search comes up empty.

This is a potential expansion point of this article, if we establish notability.--MarkA12 08:30, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

OK, I am going to draft a quick explanation of the circle outline and post it here (talk page) first. --MarkA12 08:30, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Repeated vandalism

A person with an IP address (168.9.48.254) at the State of Georgia/Department of Education repeatedly vandalized the article, a person with more time and familiarity with the article might want to check it over for any mischief.--Mikerussell 16:45, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Expand article

This page is short for such a celebrated writer.

I agree, but I don't know enough myself.--T. Anthony (talk) 08:33, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

There are quite unexpected personal descriptions of E. B. White’s, Harold Ross’s and James Thurber’s lifes and characters in the book Robert K. Greenleaf, “The Power of Servant Leadership”. You might want to check them out. – Publius (talk) 11:07, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

b

where does it say where he was born??? nowhere!!!! this is not helpful to me. At all. :( :( :( —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.73.47.135 (talk) 18:57, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Religious Affiliation

What was his religious preferences and should it be included in his info box? Invmog (talk) 04:54, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

If there happens to be something particularly notable about his "religious preferences" (I have no reason to suppose there is) than that information could be included in the article proper. Nothing about religion should be included in the "info box", however. TheScotch (talk) 09:19, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

Dueling Birth Places

I want to point out that White's birth place in the narrative text is listed as Albany, New York, but in the data block it is listed as Mount Vernon, New York, which is a suburb in Westchester County that borders the Bronx -- a long way from Albany. I don't have any way to set this right myself since I don't have any printed (non-Internet) source information that I could consider definitive... but just wanted to point it out. Brent (talk) 03:57, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

Father's Name

Why does it say his father's name was Samuel Johnson? That doesn't make sense and is not cited. I believe his father's name was Samuel Tilly White. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.202.254.39 (talk) 21:48, 12 January 2012 (UTC) This page is really quite a disgrace. I updated the father's name. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.202.255.99 (talk) 21:23, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Alzheimer's disease not likely cause of death

I've added {{rs}} and {{dubious}} to the statement that Alzheimer's disease was the cause of death. What I know about Alzheimer's matches what is stated in Alzheimer's disease - that it is not a fatal disease, and death comes from other, secondary issues. deadoralive.com seems like a completely unreliable source and I believe the statement should be struck unless something more reliable can be found.

Toddst1 (talk) 23:36, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Depression

In an age where mental health is discussed more openly, I'd urge mention of his depression. This was not a hypothetical diagnosis. It was important in his writing and in his life. Pittsburgh Poet (talk) 22:08, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

pacifist ? bisexual ?

--— ⦿⨦⨀Tumadoireacht ^Talk/_Stalk 10:15, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

Bibliography

I have commenced a tidy-up of the Bibliography section using cite templates. Capitalization and punctuation follow standard cataloguing rules in AACR2 and RDA, as much as Wikipedia templates allow it. ISBNs and other persistent identifiers, where available, are commented out, but still available for reference. Feel free to continue. Sunwin1960 (talk) 11:59, 21 June 2017 (UTC)

unnecessary reference?

This seems to be a bit of an orphan:

"Katharine's son from her first marriage, Roger Angell, spent decades as a fiction editor for The New Yorker and was well known as the magazine's baseball writer."

Note sure why this is in the section. Was going to delete but maybe this was suppose to be tied to something else? Perm Dude (talk) 22:16, 31 May 2023 (UTC)