The Story of Charlotte's Web

While composing what would become his most enduring and popular book, Charlotte's Web, E. B. White was obeyingthat oft-repeated maxim: 'Write what you know.' Helpless pigs, silly geese,clever spiders, greedy rats - White knew all of these characters in the barnsand stables where he spent his favourite hours as child and adult. Painfullyshy, White once wrote of himself 'this boy felt for animals a kinship he neverfelt for people'. Nonetheless, that tens of millions have been so moved by Charlotte's Web, and by White's otherclassics, testifies to his deep understanding of the human condition.

Bringing readers into intimate contact with E. B. White's world,Michael Sims chronicles his animal-rich youth and dreams of being a writer; thevibrant early years of the New Yorker,where urban nature was White's ever-present theme; the discovery of the farm inMaine where he and his wife would live and where his imagination wouldflourish; his fascinating scientific research into how spiders spin webs, layeggs, and live in the world; his friendship with his legendary editor, UrsulaNordstrom; and the luminous creative process that led to publication of hismasterpiece.

By refining the raw ore of his childhood in Mount Vernon, New York, inthe first decade of the twentieth century, White translated his own passionsand contradictions, delights and fears, into a book that would be read theworld over. The Story of Charlotte's Webilluminates the life of a literary icon, and will add richness and appreciationfor anyone who has loved, or has yet to read, a cherished classic.