On the Watch for Wonder: A Summer of reading E.B. White
Most of my interactions with spiders and spider webs are on the panicky side, involving me hurrying for some way to get a spider out of my house or me flinging my arms about to disentangle myself from the sticky strands of a web accidentally walked through, but in the summer of 2023, I was in the middle of reading the essays of E.B. White as well as his three well-known children’s books, and the sight of a spider spinning a giant web above my front door caused me to race for my camera instead. Camera in hand, I proceeded to stand perfectly still watching this spider move like White’s famous Charlotte weaving the word Terrific: "Up we go! Attach! Descend! Pay out line. Whoa, girl! Steady now!” I was mesmerized by how quickly and nimbly my spider moved, creating her masterpiece. A summer of reading E.B. White made me awake to the everyday miracles happening around me. I wasn’t in a hurry to tear down the giant web over my front door. Instead, it felt like a welcome from my very own Charlotte when I arrived home. I remembered the words of the minister in Charlotte’s Web, who saw the words Charlotte wove as a miracle.
“...human beings must always be on the watch for the coming of wonders.”
Charlotte’s Web is the first book I ever read all in one day. I imagine it must have been in the summertime because I was reading outside sitting in the fork of a tree with the freedom to read until the story’s end. All of E.B. White’s books evoke the spirit of summer—especially an old-fashioned childhood summer. Fern sits amongst the animals in the barn, flies through the air on Uncle Homer’s swing, and travels to the fair in Charlotte’s Web. Stuart wins the sailboat race in Central Park and drives north in his car on a hot day, stopping for a cold sarsaparilla in Stuart Little. Louis the Swan works as a junior counselor at a boys’ summer camp in The Trumpet of the Swan. All three of these novels reflect White’s attention to the animal life in his own farmyard in Maine where he spent his later years.
If you’d like to have a summer of E.B. White, I recommend reading these five books, three of which are quite obvious.
Charlotte’s Web* - This is the novel I am most familiar with, having read it as a child and read it to my own children, as well as watching the animated film. I daresay most people are familiar with the story of the spider who decides to save the life of a pig by spinning words in her web in the barn where the pig Wilbur lives, but if you are not, you can easily read this book in a day!
Stuart Little* - I also read this novel as a child, but I did not own the book which meant the story of the tiny mouse born to a human family in New York City was not a re-read for me. It’s a strange little book, but it has moments of charm.
The Trumpet of the Swan* - This is the novel that I had not read until 2023. I think I avoided it because the title sounded boring. I assumed it referred to the fact that the noise swans make is like that of a trumpet, which of course it is, but little did I know Louis the Swan has an actual trumpet. I was completely charmed by this story and its descriptions of nature in the Canadian wilderness.
Essays of E.B. White* - This collection of essays spans White’s writing career, many of them written during his time at The New Yorker. I especially loved reading about his trek to Alaska as a young man and his life on a farm as an older man.
Some Writer!: The Story of E.B. White* - This is a charming and creative biography about E.B. White written by Melissa Sweet using mixed media collages to tell the story of his life. It is beautiful and engaging and a delight to read.
Much like C.S. Lewis made it impossible to see a lamppost or walk into a snowy day without thinking of Narnia, E.B. White’s writing makes it hard not to see a spider, a pig, or a swan without stopping to pay attention. I might have to still draw the line at finding a mouse charming. I highly recommend a summer of E.B. White: Read a book in a day, pay attention to spiders, geese, pigs, butterflies, and dogs. Go for a drive and stop somewhere for a cold drink. Linger awhile. It’s good for the soul.
“...’summer’s are wonderful, aren’t they, Katherine?...Summertime is important. It’s like a shaft of sunlight...Never forget your summertimes, my dears,’ he said.”
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