by Michael Sims
145 In the spring of 1926: EBW, “The Librarian Said It Was Bad For Children,” New York Times, 6 March 1966; Elledge, pp. 253ff.
146 “Don’t let Andy neglect Stuart Little”: Elledge, quoted p. 254.
146 children’s librarian Anne Carroll Moore: Ibid., from letter to EBW from Anne Carroll Moore, 16 January 1939.
146 “My fears about writing”: EBW, letter to Anne Carroll Moore, 15 February 1939, in Letters.
147 “It would seem to be for children”: EBW, letter to Eugene Saxton, 1 March [1939], in Letters.
147 He informed Anne Carol Moore: EBW, letter to Anne Carol Moore, 25 April 1939, in Letters.
147 had to convince the gas ration board: EBW, letter to Harold Ross, [April? 1943], in Letters.
148 to watch the woodcocks’ mating dance: EBW, letter to Gustave S. Lobrano, [March? 1943], in Letters.
148 “So the only thing for me to do is quit”: EBW, letter to Frederick Lewis Allen, 13 March [1943], in Letters.
148 “I want,” he said flatly: EBW, letter to Frederick Lewis Allen, 20 March 1943, in Letters.
148 what he described as a “nervous crack-up”: EBW, letter to Harry Lyford, 28 October 1943, in Letters.
149 a furnished apartment on East Thirty-fifth Street: Elledge, pp. 250–51.
149 “Ever at home are the mice in hiding”: EBW, “Home Song,” NY, 5 February 1944.
149 “The mouse of Thought”: EBW, “Vermin,” NY, 6 October 1944.
149 “mice in the subconscious”: EBW, letter to Stanley Hart White [ January 1945], in Letters.
150 he found a mouse hiding: Elledge, p. 263.
150 about buying a mousetrap: EBW, unsigned, untitled Comment, NY, 2 October 1926.
150 to complete Stuart Little within two months: EBW, “The Librarian Said It Was Bad for Children,” New York Times, 6 March 1966; Elledge, pp. 253ff.
150 Andy switched Stuart’s name to the more apt Little: Neumeyer, p. 105.
150 “he could have been sent first class mail”: Stuart, ch. 1.
152 amid messy offices: Nordstrom, pp. xxixff.
153 unfit for children: EBW, “The Librarian Said It Was Bad for Children,” New York Times, 6 March 1966.
153 insisting that Stuart was unruly: KSW, letter to Anne Carroll Moore, quoted (without date) in Guth, Letters, p. 267.
153 Nordstrom approached several artists: Nordstrom, pp. 8, 9.
153 Ferdinand … pacifist propaganda: Sue Lile Inman, “Robert Lawson,” Dictionary of Literary Biography, v. 22, p. 233.
153 author and editor admired Lawson’s: Nordstrom, letter to KSW, 30 March 1945, in Nordstrom.
154 a preoccupation only around the New Yorker offices: Wilson and Ross quotations from EBW, New York Times, 6 March 1966. I italicized born in Ross’s exclamation.
155 “I have now a library”: Thoreau, Journal, 28 October 1853.
155 increase the first printing to more than fifty thousand: Nordstrom, letter to EBW, 12 September 1945, in Nordstrom.
155 a man in New York named Stuart Little: Ibid.
156 Perhaps he could make a living: Marcus, Minders of Make-Believe, p. 176.
Chapter 12: FOREKNOWLEDGE
157 “Confronted by new challenges”: EBW, Introduction, OMM.
157 In late March of 1948: EBW, “Tomorrow Snow,” NY, 20 March 1948, in Writings.
157 Roosevelt Hotel: Much of the Roosevelt Hotel information came from historical photos on their own Web site, http://www.theroosevelthotel.com.
158 “He was a man carrying foreknowledge”: EBW, “Tomorrow Snow,” NY, 20 March 1948, in Writings.
158 “A man sometimes gets homesick”: EBW, “My Day,” Harper’s, in OMM.
158–59 awarded three honorary degrees: EBW, letter to KSW [ June 1948], Guth, note to Letters, p. 296.
159 Irving Penn had photographed him for Vogue: See photo insert in Elledge, after p. 278.
159 “You say nothing about nasal discharge”: Quoted in Davis, p. 115; her source note, p. 267, says “KSW to EBW, Tuesday [1935].”
159 Convinced that he had a brain tumor: EBW, letter to KSW [26 March 1934], in Letters.
159 how a hot-water bottle: EBW, “To a Hot Water Bottle Named Jonathan,” NY, 18 February 1928.
160 the morality of raising farm animals: EBW, “Death of a Pig,” Atlantic Monthly, January 1948.
161 delivered piglets: EBW, quoted by Neumeyer, p. 2.
161 “The loss we felt”: EBW, “Death of a Pig,” Atlantic Monthly, January 1948.
162 This pleasurable assignment: EBW, letter to John McNulty, dated 21 August 1949, in Letters.
162 “Don knew how lonely”: EBW, “Hot Weather,” Harper’s, in OMM.
163 “A seer a day”: EBW, “Compost,” Harper’s, in OMM.
163 “If you sat up nights”: Teale, Near Horizons, New York: Dodd Mead, 1942.
163 “Archy’s boss is dead”: EBW, untitled paragraphs, NY, 9 March 1946, in Wild Flag.
164 “Archy and Mehitabel, between the two of them”: EBW, “Don Marquis,” OMM. Actually White doesn’t capitalize Archy’s name, following common newspaper practice then because Archy himself could not work the shift key of Marquis’s typewriter; but in White’s introduction to the Marquis omnibus White rejects this idea and follows Marquis’s own practice, which was to capitalize the names of his characters.
164 “The details of his creative life”: Ibid.
164 “To interpret humor”: Ibid.
165 his gumdrop-size neighbor: Charlotte, ch. 5.
166 peach-colored cotton candy: Ibid.
166 The sac’s material felt: This description comes from my having examined and held such egg cases myself.
167 “Nobody styled the orb web of a spider”: EBW, “The Motorcar,” Harper’s, in OMM.
167 “the elasticity of democracy”: EBW, “Academic Freedom,” NY, 26 February 1949, in Every Day.
Chapter 13: ZUCKERMAN’S BARN
169 “I discovered, quite by accident”: EBW, letter to Gene Deitch, 12 January [1971], in Letters.
169 “I guess it depends”: EBW, letter to Cass Canfield, 19 May 1950, not in Letters; quoted by Elledge, p. 293.
170 wrote nothing for “Notes and Comment”: Elledge, p. 293.
170 campaign for larger taxicabs: EBW, letter to Harold Ross [ January?] 1950,” in Letters.
170 The Thirteen Clocks: EBW, letter to James Thurber, 6 June 1950, in Letters.
171 “It is a straight report”: EBW, letter to Gene Deitch, 12 January [1971], in Letters.
172 focused his despair and his .22 rifle: EBW, “Fall,” Harper’s, in OMM.
Chapter 14: SPINNINGWORK
175 “In writing of a spider”: EBW, letter to Gene Deitch, 12 January [1971], in Letters.
175 McCook: All quotations from American Spiders and Their Spinningwork.
177 Andy covered many sheets of yellow draft paper: Cornell. All quotations, as well as descriptions of EBW’s manuscript drafts of Charlotte, are from Cornell, especially Box 2, Folders A, B, and C. In same folders see EBW’s diagrams of spiderwebs and barn layout, some within text, some separate.
181 Comstock: All quotations from The Spider Book.
181 Gertsch: All quotations from American Spiders.
Chapter 15: PAEAN
189 “A paean to life”: EBW, letter to Gene Deitch, January 12 [1971], in Letters.
189 “Twenty-five years of working”: Quoted in Davis, p. 157.
189 Joe was halfway through college: Ibid., p. 156.
189 to lend Nabokov a desperately needed advance: Ibid., p. 144.
190 “a subtle and loving reader”: Ibid., p. 151.
190 he found himself caring deeply: EBW, letter to Dorothy Joan Harris, 28 June 1974, in Letters.
190 Walt Disney forced animals to dance: EBW, letter to Gene Deitch, 12 January [1971], in Letters.
191 didn’t want to twist their personalities: Ibid.
191 “The barn—”: All quotations from EBW’s drafts of C
harlotte, Cornell, Box 2.
195 “the basic satisfaction in farming is manure”: EBW, “A Winter Diary,” Harper’s, January 1941, in OMM.
195 “I keep it in a carton”: EBW letter to Cass Canfield, dated 19 October [1949], in Letters.
196 He finished the draft: Elledge, p. 295.
196 “I’ve recently finished another children’s book”: EBW letter to Ursula Nordstrom, dated 1 March 1951, in Letters.
196 “I would rather wait a year”: EBW, letter to Eugene Saxton, 11 April 1939, in Letters.
197 owned a pig named Wilbur: EBW, letter to J. Wilbur Wolf, 25 March 1953, in Letters.
197 Andy changed it to Lurvy: Neumeyer, p. 18, n. 11, citing Folder B from Cornell archives.
197 “Home is the part of our life”: EBW, “Home Song,” NY, 5 February 1944.
198 “None of us like him”: Charlotte, ch. 7.
198 Fern’s father sounded a bit like Samuel White: Peter F. Neumeyer makes this point in his Annotated Charlotte’s Web, p. 5.
198 Dorian, after the ancient Greeks: I didn’t notice this myself. I ran across it in Neumeyer, p. 105, n. 1. It seems to me a convincing argument that White deliberately chose this uncommon name. He was fully aware of the ancient pastoral themes in his story and even referred to the book as a “paean,” the ancient Greek word for a hymn of praise.
199 They get the cocker spaniel: Neumeyer, p. 20, n. 14, and p. 97, n. 9, citing Cornell, Folder A.
201 she said she tired of him: Cornell, Box 2, Folder B.
201 “A man who is dealing”: EBW, letter to Childhood Revisited Class, 9 March 1973, in Letters.
202 One of the parts of the book he particularly liked: EBW, from Cornell archives, cited by Neumeyer, p. 17, n. 8, cites Cornell, Box II, Folder II.
205 the saddest sentence in the book: EBW, Cornell, Box 2, Folder B.
206 “A’s letter to the Times”: KSW to Mrs. George F. Murray, 27 April 1949, quoted by Davis, p. 140.
Chapter 16: SOME BOOK
208 “The web glistened”: EBW, Charlotte, ch. 11.
208 “That’s the best news I’ve had”: Nordstrom, letter to EBW, 19 March 1951, in Nordstrom.
209 in March 1952: Neumeyer, p. 207.
209 her office at Harper & Brothers: Harper office description: Jean Craighead George, Journey Inward, pp. 213–14, quoted in Nordstrom, pp. xxix–xxx.
209 Nordstrom was too busy: Most of the details about White’s delivery of the Charlotte’s Web manuscript come from an article Nordstrom wrote, “Stuart, Wilbur, Charlotte: A Tale of Tales,” New York Times, 12 May 1974. Neumeyer, p. 207, says White delivered the manuscript on March 29, but he and Nordstrom were exchanging letters about it a few days before this date.
210 Nordstrom sat down in her office: Nordstrom, quoted by Susan Heller Anderson, “Ursula Nordstrom, 78, a Nurturer of Authors for Children, Is Dead,” New York Times, 12 October 1988.
210 Nordstrom found the story remarkably engaging: Ursula Nordstrom, “Stuart, Wilbur, Charlotte: A Tale of Tales,” New York Times, 12 May 1974.
210 She wasted no time: Nordstrom, letter to EBW, 2 April 1952, in Nordstrom.
211 had bought a television set: Nordstrom, letter to Ruth Krauss, 29 January 1952, in Nordstrom.
212 five hundred dollars against future royalties: Nordstrom, letter to EBW, 21 March 1952, in Letters.
212 Milton Greenstein, a lawyer: Guth, Letters, p. 311, n. 1.
212 “It sounds like an extravagant dream”: EBW, letter to Ursula Nordstrom, 27 March 1952, in Letters. See also editor Guth’s note to this letter.
212 “Charlotte’s children”: Ibid.
212 “I believe Charlotte is the first”: Ursula Nordstrom, letter to EBW, 2 April 1952 in Nordstrom.
213 A spider writing in a web: Walter R. Brooks, Freddy and Mr. Camphor. Originally published in 1944; reprinted, New York: Overlook Press, 2000.
214 They discussed the draft: Nordstrom, letter to KSW, 10 April 1952, in Letters.
214 Garth Williams … was already sketching: Nordstrom, letter to EBW, 2 April 1952, in Letters.
215 changed the chapter title: Letter from Nordstrom to KSW, 10 April 1952, in Letters.
215 he had ideas of his own: Nordstrom, letter to EBW, 10 April 1952, in Nordstrom.
216 a regular advance against royalties: Nordstrom to Garth Williams, 29 March 1950, in Nordstrom.
216 a dozen other books: Entry on Williams in Something about the Author 66.
216 peripatetic life: Joan Brest Friedberg, “Garth Williams,” Dictionary of Literary Biography.
216 his barefoot Huck Finn years: William Anderson, “Garth Williams after Eighty,” The Horn Book Magazine 69.2 (1993).
217 “I’m afraid he’s going to be an artist”: Garth Williams, quoted in entry in Something about the Author 66.
217 Williams felt that an illustrator: Garth Williams, “Illustrating the Little House Books,” Horn Book, December 1953.
218 This initial image he would rework: Quoted by Silvey, Children’s Books and Their Creators, p. 685.
218 Williams found Charlotte’s Web less interesting: Garth Williams, unpublished letter to Peter F. Neumeyer, 2 October 1983, quoted in Neumeyer, p. 121.
219 he even sent a clipping: Ursula Nordstrom, “Stuart, Wilbur, Charlotte: A Tale of Tales,” New York Times, 12 May 1974.
219 sent her the New York Public Library call number: EBW, letter to Nordstrom, 28 March [1952], in Letters; Nordstrom, letter to EBW, 2 April 1952, in Nordstrom.
219 “The eyes and hair”: White, letter to Nordstrom, 28 March [1952], in Letters.
220 photographs in Gertsch and McCook gruesome: Garth Williams, unpublished letter to Peter F. Neumeyer, 2 October 1983, quoted in Neumeyer, p. 121.
220 with the scattered eight eyes that real spiders possess: Nordstrom, letter to EBW, 28 April 1952, in Nordstrom.
220 a Mona Lisa face: Guth, Letters, n. on pp. 353–54; Garth Williams, unpublished letter to Peter F. Neumeyer, 2 October 1983, quoted in Neumeyer, p. 121.
220 Despite his remark to Nordstrom: Nordstrom, letter to KSW, 10 April 1952, in Nordstrom.
220 the less Charlotte looked like a person: Nordstrom, letter to EBW, 28 April 1952, in Nordstrom.
221 sketched a simpler face on the back: Ibid.
221 if he liked Charlotte as she was: Ibid.
221 “You better just draw a spider”: Guth, Letters, n. on pp. 353–54.
222 “sort of like a keystone”: EBW, letter to Nordstrom, 28 March [1952], in Letters.
222 “Charlotte’s legs are equipped”: EBW, letter to Nordstrom, 24 May 1952, in Letters.
222 With these almost subliminal marks: Neumeyer, p. 66.
222 But Williams privately thought: Garth Williams, unpublished letter to Peter F. Neumeyer, 2 October 1983, quoted in Neumeyer, pp. 200–201.
223 “rather mussy Charles Addams attic web”: EBW, letter to Nordstrom, 24 May 1952, in Letters.
223 Nordstrom had questions: Nordstrom, letter to EBW, 20 June 1952, in Nordstrom.
223 “no goose-lover in this house”: EBW, letter to Nordstrom, 24 May 1952, in Letters.
224 he painted around its web: Nordstrom, “Stuart, Wilbur, Charlotte: A Tale of Tales,” New York Times, 12 May 1974.
224 thought of her as one of Charlotte’s daughters: EBW, letter to Ursula Nordstrom, 23 July 1952, in Letters.
Chapter 17: COMPLETION
226 The terrible excitement: EBW, “Poetry,” November 1939, in OMM.
226 Richard de Rochemont: EBW, letter to Richard de Rochemont, 28 April 1952, in Letters.
227 hepatitis: EBW, letter to Ursula Nordstrom, 23 July 1952, in Letters.
227 “disemboweled”: EBW, letter to H. K. Rigg, 11 December 1951, in Letters.
227 The funeral: EBW, letter to Frank Sullivan, [17? December, 1951], in Letters.
227 “an Atlas who lacked muscle tone”: Ibid.
228 “The things that matter”: Ibid.
228 J. D. Salinger: EBW, let
ter to J. D. Salinger, 17 December 1951, in Letters.
228 turned down an invitation: EBW, letter to Kenneth Bird, 28 December 1951, in Letters.
229 George VI: See copy of unpublished letter in Cornell, 28 March [1952], originally from Hamish Hamilton office, signed only “Jimmy.”
229 “remember that writing”: EBW, letter to Elizabeth S____, 10 December 1951, in Letters.
229 “I write largely for myself”: EBW, letter to Childhood Revisited Class, 9 March 1973, in Letters.
229 Charlotte’s Web was published: Elledge, p. 298.
229 Eudora Welty … raved: Eudora Welty, “Along Came a Spider,” New York Times, 19 October 1952.
230 Moore was expressing her dissatisfaction: Nordstrom, letter to EBW, 23 October 1952, in Nordstrom.
230 Moore’s review appeared: Anne Carroll Moore, “The Three Owls Notebook,” Horn Book Magazine, December 1952; reprint available at http://www.hbook.com/magazine/articles/1950s/dec52_moore.asp.
231 “Would it be all right”: EBW, letter to Ursula Nordstrom, 5 December 1952, in Letters.
231 “Charmingly sentimental tale”: Guth, note to EBW, letter to Cass Canfield, 29 December 1952, in Letters.
231 Bennett Cerf proclaimed: Bennett Cerf, “Trade Winds,” The Saturday Review, 15 November 1952.
231 “Though I am not usually attracted”: M. F. Kieran, review of Charlotte, Atlantic Monthly, December 1952.
232 “This is really more”: Katherine Kinkead, review, NY, 6 December 1952.
232 “such tangible magic”: P. L. Travers, New York Herald Tribune Book Review, 16 November 1952.
232 Andy also liked a remark: EBW, letter to Cass Canfield, 29 December 1952, in Letters.
232 Louis de Rochemont: EBW, letter to Stanley Hart White, 11 January 1953, in Letters.
233 Andy had spent many hours: EBW, “Ascension,” NY, 17 March 1928, in Writings.
233 four-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Caroline: EBW, letter to Ursula Nordstrom, 22 October 1952, in Nordstrom, and p. 55, n. 2 to Nordstrom’s letter to White, 23 October 1952, in Nordstrom.
234 When the students: EBW, letter to “Pupils of Grade 5-B, Larchmont, New York,” 26 December 1952, in Letters.
234 “I do not like to betray”: EBW, letter distributed by Harper & Brothers, in Cornell.