This came as a shock, since none of her predecessors had spared so much as There is really no way for a man to put his arms around a big house plant and still remain a gentleman. Be the first to start one ». new topic. Oct 26, Judith E rated it really liked it · review of another edition Shelves: short-stories. The essays also show off his sentimental side, writing about taking his crush to a dance in the city and taking his son to the lake his own father took him to as a child. Sep 22, Amy rated it liked it · review of another edition Eb white essay the-true-story-of, eb white essay.
Life Choices In The Road Not Taken
I like working better than relaxation, eb white essay. Such is the person we find in New York City, popular culture would have eb white essay believe, the urgent doer. Everything is eb white essay done all the time with purpose if not expediency. Check out the illustrated The Elements of Style by fellow New Yorker Maira Kalman. On any person who desires such queer prizes, eb white essay, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy. From E. The idea of this collection of strangers sits well with me and I think most inhabitants would agree it is a city of anonymity. New York blends the gift of privacy with the excitement of participation; and better than most dense communities it succeeds in insulating the individual if he wants it, and almost every body wants or needs it against all enormous and violent and wonderful events that are taking place every minute.
Since I have been sitting in this miasmic air shaft, a good many rather splashy events have occurred in town. A man shot and killed his wife in a fit of jealousy, eb white essay. It caused no stir outside his block and got only a small mention in the papers. I did not attend. Since my arrival, the greatest air show ever staged in all the world took place in town. As White notices, we have immunity to things outside our boundaries. But not always. White addresses the latter:. New York has changed in tempo and in temper during the years I have known it. There is greater tension, increased irritability, eb white essay. You encounter it in many places, eb white essay, in many faces.
As a result his portrait of this inimitable city is diverse and complex, eb white essay. He seems to ask, is New York a thing or an atmosphere? Should we give it qualities of personhood? Does it inhale and exhale? How do we engage? Essays of E. It is also steps apart to give us something universal about place. It is all rather serious-minded, this World of Tomorrow, and extremely impersonal, eb white essay. My favorite piece in Essays of E. What to get rid of, what to keep, disposing of the indispensable. It is an essay about abandonment. Of things, of city, of self. I kept hoping that some morning, as by magic, all books, pictures, records, chairs, beds, curtains, eb white essay, china, eb white essay, utensils, keepsakes would drain away from around my feet, like outgoing tide.
But this did not happen. White moved to Maine — he called it his home — and remained there until he died in When Andy Warhol died, two years after White, eb white essay, his massive collection hoardall acquired on the streets and shops of New York, was untouched and eventually sold at auction. The artist as a collector had taken shape. He never moved his things, never divorced himself from the City. Did he ever relax? Did he change the map of New York? In a word, care. Relentlessly American that way. At the Battery I am standing on one foot at the prow of great Manhattan leaning forward projecting a little into the bright harbor If only a topographer in a helicopter would pass over my shadow I might be imposed forever on the maps of this city.
That such a city could hold the minds and aspirations of so many, without knuckling them together in defeat, and without wholly changing its maps, never ceases to amaze me. New Eb white essay holds it all together, remains and yet still moves. It is this being that White wrangles with in Essays. While White wrote and Parker posed and Warhola vascillated, so many other were making their way, as the case may be, like James Baldwin selling wares in the streets at seven, or Billie Holliday who cleaned brothels at age 10, or Joan Didion imbibing the pain of her grief-soaked apartment. All overlapping, crossing paths, intersecting. The Examined Life website uses cookies to offer you the best experience.
You can find out more about which cookies are used on the Privacy Policy page. Skip to content. Home Library Search About. Can we ever blazon our mark on this City, Parker seem to ask once, or does it merely mark us? And yet, there are boundaries to that privacy, that isolation. White addresses the latter: New York has changed in tempo and in temper during the years I have known it. New York City. Photograph by Ellen Vrana. Installation view of the Andy Warhol Retrospective, MCA Chicago from July — September Photograph by Frank J. White by Maira Kalman. How many writers are outwriting their thoughts right now?
So do we ever eb white essay ourselves on the city or is it only onto us? Grace Paley wrote of this: At the Battery I am standing on one foot at the prow of great Manhattan leaning forward projecting a little into the bright harbor If only a topographer in a helicopter would pass over my shadow I might be imposed forever on the maps of this city. Accept cookies Cookies Policy.
short essays on education
As a result his portrait of this inimitable city is diverse and complex. He seems to ask, is New York a thing or an atmosphere? Should we give it qualities of personhood? Does it inhale and exhale? How do we engage? Essays of E. It is also steps apart to give us something universal about place. It is all rather serious-minded, this World of Tomorrow, and extremely impersonal. My favorite piece in Essays of E. What to get rid of, what to keep, disposing of the indispensable. It is an essay about abandonment. Of things, of city, of self. I kept hoping that some morning, as by magic, all books, pictures, records, chairs, beds, curtains, lamps, china, glass, utensils, keepsakes would drain away from around my feet, like outgoing tide.
But this did not happen. White moved to Maine — he called it his home — and remained there until he died in When Andy Warhol died, two years after White, his massive collection hoard , all acquired on the streets and shops of New York, was untouched and eventually sold at auction. The artist as a collector had taken shape. He never moved his things, never divorced himself from the City. Did he ever relax? Did he change the map of New York? In a word, care. Relentlessly American that way. At the Battery I am standing on one foot at the prow of great Manhattan leaning forward projecting a little into the bright harbor If only a topographer in a helicopter would pass over my shadow I might be imposed forever on the maps of this city.
That such a city could hold the minds and aspirations of so many, without knuckling them together in defeat, and without wholly changing its maps, never ceases to amaze me. New York holds it all together, remains and yet still moves. It is this being that White wrangles with in Essays. While White wrote and Parker posed and Warhola vascillated, so many other were making their way, as the case may be, like James Baldwin selling wares in the streets at seven, or Billie Holliday who cleaned brothels at age 10, or Joan Didion imbibing the pain of her grief-soaked apartment. All overlapping, crossing paths, intersecting. The Examined Life website uses cookies to offer you the best experience. You can find out more about which cookies are used on the Privacy Policy page. Skip to content.
This came as a shock, since none of her predecessors had spared so much as a moment on a semicolon. In college I picked up the habit of rereading Strunk and White at least once a year. One of the reasons I picked up this book was the hope that, by observing White at work, his example might serve where his precepts failed. With White, the style is the man; and any discussion of his works inevitably becomes an analysis of his prose. It is writerly writing. His style is conversational, not aphoristic. His sentences are not pointed, his wit is not barbed, his lines are not militantly memorable. His writing is loose; it breathes like a cotton shirt; it is drafty like an old wooden cabin.
You might say that his essays are a controlled ramble, a balancing act that looks like a casual stroll. They take their time. Like a scatterbrained errand boy, they pause in a thousand places for momentary rendezvous and covert dalliances before reaching their destinations. White seldom speaks in abstractions, and hardly makes an argument. His writing is held together not by the logic of ideas but by the tissue of memory. This is partly why the style is unfilterable from the content. There is no thesis to take away. He is not trying to make a point, but to communicate his perspective, to encapsulate a piece of his personality. Modest and gently humorous, he is animated by a curiosity for the little things that comprise his world. This is what makes him such a consummate essayist. In the humdrum facts and quotidian occurrences of life he hears music and meaning, and spiderlike weaves his own web to stitch them into a delicate structure: As I sat at table, gnawing away at a piece of pie, snow began falling.
At first it was an almost imperceptible spitting from the gray sky, but it soon thickened and came driving in from the northeast. I watched it catch along the edge of the drive, powder the stone wall, and whiten the surface of the dark frozen pond, and I knew that all along the coast from Kittery on, the worst mistakes of men were being quietly erased, the lines of their industrial temples softened, and U. Since what White says is less important than the way he says it, upon finishing the reader is left with nothing but echoes and aftertastes. Yet it is a delicious aftertaste, tart and tangy with a touch of smoke, and it whets my appetite for more. flag 27 likes · Like · see review. View all 4 comments. Jun 04, Chrissie rated it really liked it Shelves: bio , audible-uk , read , classics , short , usa.
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 very best are those essays where the topics covered although related also diverge - Adlai Stevenson, Truman, Eisenhower, religion, faith, dogs and politics; this one was entitled Bedfellows and was my very favorite! The book concludes with a concise biography of E. White and his wife, which I highly appreciated. It is worth picking up the book just for this. White's Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic.
The audiobook narration by Malcolm Hillgartner is impeccable. Clear, easy to follow and read at a perfect speed. THIS is how I want all audiobooks to be read! I can tell you what the essays cover but it is how they are written that enchants. The book as a whole I enjoyed very, very much and thus am giving it four stars. The narration I have given five stars. flag 26 likes · Like · see review. View 2 comments. Apr 23, Joe rated it it was amazing · review of another edition. Like the majority of American liberal artists, I know E. 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. 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 Like the majority of American liberal artists, I know E. 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 deep emotion it aroused. Lastly, I knew E. White was the resident essayist for years at the New Yorker , and I had read a piece or two of his during college and graduate writing programs, and found them—as I expected from the editor of the Elements of Style —to be refined and distinct, even if I believed they were too patricianly contented for my taste.
Now, I've worked my way through this collection concurrently with David Foster Wallace's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again , and I couldn't think of a more illuminating contrast. Both artists reside within a tiny honored circle of American essayists. Both artists, per William Strunk's instruction, labor to omit needless words. Both artists ask that every word tell. But Wallace crams his sentences full of meaning, each written as though it would be his last and only, while E. White seems to let some sentences breathe the open air. What's more, Wallace often mercilessly whips his essay, even his day-to-day accounts, in pursuit of his philosophical rabbit. He is as methodical as the baseline tennis player of his teenage years, piling precise sentence on sentence, calculating and increasing the advantageous angles, till triumph is inevitable.
White seems, by contrast, to be at times an amnesiac playing billiards with one hand: scattering the balls, then studying them, judging their position anew, and firing away. In his missives from Maine, for instance, White will digress into accounts on the weather, reports on egg production, measurements of snowfall and the tides, before meandering to his point. But when White finally finds the balls aligned to his liking, he strikes with such a devastatingly beautiful, caroming shot! Consider his essay, "Death of a Pig," filled with mournful puns such a thing is possible!
It seems a sweet, orchard-smelling essay, but comes around to a gorgeous and devastating final sentence comparing the curious spirit of his daschund Fred and the haunting regret he, as a failed caretaker, feels at his pig's inescapable death: "The grave in the woods is unmarked, but Fred can direct the mourner to it unerringly and with immense good will, and I know he and I shall often revisit it, singly and together, in seasons of reflection and despair, on flagless memorial days of our own choosing. Within the slow, sad, wandering story, it is devastatingly melancholic.
Or, consider the lively and humorous essay on the World's Fair in Queens, NY, which pokes gentle fun at the antiseptic world of tomorrow. And at the end, the essay arrives the peculiar image of a couple of bare-breasted "Amazon" girls sitting in a robot automaton's giant rubber palm: a silly image, ripe for the simple, sly irony and gentle humanism that characterizes an essay filled with tots making long distance phone calls, cracks about the rainy weather. But White opts, in the last sentence, to just put aside the nibbles of soft irony and just take one voracious bite.
And so, from nothing: "Here was the Fair, all fairs, in pantomime; and here the strange mixed dream that made the Fair: the heroic man, bloodless and perfect and enormous, created in his own image, and in his hand rubber, aseptic the literal desire, the warm and living breast. Owning a car was still a major excitement, roads were wonderful and bad. The Fords were obviously conceived in madness: any car which was capable of going from forward into reverse without any perceptible mechanical hiatus was bound to be a mighty challenging thing to the human imagination.
Boys used to veer them off the highway into a level pasture and run wild with them, as though they were cutting up with a girl The days were golden, the nights were dim and strange. I still recall with trembling those loud, nocturnal crises when you drew up to a signpost and raced the engine so the lights would be bright enough to read destinations by. I have never been really planetary since. I suppose it's time to say good-bye. Farewell, my lovely! flag 19 likes · Like · see review. Oct 26, Judith E rated it really liked it · review of another edition Shelves: short-stories. Insightful and funny essays by a master craftsman.
I took my time reading these bits of perception that might go unnoticed by us when running through our days. Some of the essays were politically outdated but still retain pearls of wisdom about human behavior. flag 17 likes · Like · see review. Jun 12, Cheryl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition Shelves: to-enjoy-again. Especially for "Mr Forbush's Friends 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. The tale of his trip to Alaska, as a callow youth in the early 20s, is memorable.
There are some refe Especially for "Mr Forbush's Friends There are some references to current events and notable figures no longer known, but they are minimal. More interesting are the current events that are still current, for example urban sprawl and pollution. Included is the staple of Freshman English, "Once More to the Lake. You could relax every last tension tonight and wake tomorrow morning with all the makings of war, all the familiar promise of trouble. Very interesting. Fascinating how the man wrote so well on so many different subjects. From experiencing a hurricane to reminiscing about The St. Nicholas League to writing a tribute to Don Marquis to political commentary as the above.
I want to investigate Thoughts Without Words and Finley Peter Dunne. flag 16 likes · Like · see review. View all 9 comments. Jan 15, Terri rated it it was amazing · review of another edition Shelves: non-fiction-essays , writer-e-b-white. 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 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. Charming book. Highly recommend. Feb 08, David rated it really liked it Shelves: read-in 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 Here are some of the opening sentences found in this collection of essays. I wasn't really prepared for the World's Fair last week, and it certainly wasn't prepared for me.
Waking or sleeping, I dream of boats -- usually of rather small boats under a slight press of sail. On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy. I see by the new Sears Roebuck catalogue that it is still possible to buy an axle for a Model T Ford, but I am not deceived. Do I really need to continue? With opening lines like these, you know you are in good hands. Many of the pieces evoke a very particular time and place. They are all so beautifully written that reading them is a pleasure.
flag 8 likes · Like · see review. Apr 15, Chris J rated it liked it · review of another edition. Yo, Goodreads I. It's like This book is a classic 3. When forced to round, I must round down. 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. I will say that this collection has inspired me to Yo, Goodreads I. I will say that this collection has inspired me to research other notable essayists and has given me a deep appreciation for the genre. We should all be essayists - even poor ones. flag 7 likes · Like · see review. View all 3 comments. Aug 26, ALLEN rated it it was amazing.
White at his best, which is pretty good indeed. Essays run from before World War Two until the mid's and include the World's Fair, the author's obstreperous dachshund Fred, the predations of two New England hurricanes which White learned about more from the Boston AM radio station than his neighbors , the "war" between brown eggs and white eggs, and the increasing intrusion of government in local affairs. Indispensable to anyone interested in the mid-Twentieth Century scene and o E. Indispensable to anyone interested in the mid-Twentieth Century scene and of course, writing of a very fine level. If you think of E. White just as the author of CHARLOTTE'S WEB and STUART LITTLE, head for this volume and check it out!
Feb 16, Élise rated it it was amazing · review of another edition Shelves: nonfiction , literature. Wonderful reading. A treasure trove. Mar 28, Andrew rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. 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. 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.
With White's incredible, genuinely American voice, and his mastery of the English language, you couldn't ask for much more in an essay. I'll certainly be rereading many of these. flag 6 likes · Like · see review. Aug 07, Antigone rated it it was amazing Shelves: essays-shorts. 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. White should be immediately looked into. White's work is thoroughly grounding. Whether he's enumerating the pleasures of his Home Crawford 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 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.
Whether he's enumerating the pleasures of his Home Crawford 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 winter, his lake, his Manhattan; taking to train, to boat, to plane - the man will put you right back where you need to be by morning. A truth too little advertised: The mere act of reading him recovers. Aug 26, Rosemary rated it it was amazing. It turns out E. 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. I guess you can find it there, if you dig around. White has to say for himself. And if you don't love the world already, reading these essays It turns out E. And if you don't love the world already, reading these essays is a good way to start. Jun 16, John rated it it was amazing. This is a wonderful collection of beautifully written essays by one of the great prose stylists. Even if the subject matter of a particular essay may not be of interest, you will still find great pleasure in dipping into the words, sentences and paragraphs of a great writer. White had many interests and his essays reflect upon life in New York City, life in Maine, and general commentary upon matters that fall in between.
My favorites in this book are: his essay about Thoreau's Walden and the This is a wonderful collection of beautifully written essays by one of the great prose stylists. My favorites in this book are: his essay about Thoreau's Walden and the essay that opened his famous book with Professor Strunk entitled Elements of Style. All in all, a must read for all who enjoy the writing form called the essay. flag 4 likes · Like · see review. Jan 24, Eliza rated it liked it · review of another edition Shelves: fiction , reviewed , owned , 3-stars , classics , average. I like Charlotte's Web but, I feel like the majority of his other writing is dry. Read for class. Sep 22, Amy rated it liked it · review of another edition Shelves: the-true-story-of. 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 E. They are particulary relevant to issues we face today, with an essay on whether disarmament would create a greater peace in the world he was strongly against this, opting to find the root of the problem , his concern about our air quality in the advent of the atomic age and subsequent bombing and issues of segregation.
The essays also show off his sentimental side, writing about taking his crush to a dance in the city and taking his son to the lake his own father took him to as a child. A few of the essays lagged for me, perhaps the result of reading them back to back which at times put me in a state of lethargy. The book is, for the most part, lovely and full of wit and fervor. White does not waver on his views, but seems fair to most of his subjects and authentic in his telling. flag 5 likes · Like · see review. Jul 13, David rated it it was amazing Shelves: nonfiction , essays. I picked up this book for three reasons: simple booklust; my life-long infatuation with E.
White's writing; and the inclusion of the essay "Here is New York. 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 I picked up this book for three reasons: simple booklust; my life-long infatuation with E. Here, then, are the opening lines of " Here is New York ": "On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy. It is this largess that accounts for the presence within the city's walls of a considerable section of the population; for the residents of Manhattan are to a large extent strangers who have pulled up stakes somewhere and come to town, seeking sanctuary or fulfillment or some greater or lesser grail.
The capacity to make such dubious gifts is a mysterious quality of New York. It can destroy an individual, or it can fulfill them, depending a good deal on luck. No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky. Aug 31, Bonny rated it it was amazing · review of another edition Shelves: non-fiction , essays. I am continually amazed by and incredibly appreciative of E. White's writing, no matter whether his subject is spiders, pigs, roofing the barn, hurricanes, or war. He started writing essays around 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 I am continually amazed by and incredibly appreciative of E. They are the most attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick, and generally congenial readers on earth. They accept, almost without question, anything you present them with, as long as it is presented honestly, fearlessly, and clearly. White expressed himself that way, honestly, fearlessly, and clearly, in all of his writing, and I always find something new in his honest clarity. We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or doing laundry.
Reading E. White's writing, whether it is essays, letters, or fiction, gives me joy and hope. Jan 16, Kris rated it it was amazing. 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.
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