Biography
Elwyn Brooks White was born on 11 July 1899 in Mount Vernon, New York. He was educated at Cornell University, where he edited the student newspaper. After graduating in 1921 he worked as a journalist and freelance writer before joining The New Yorker magazine in 1927 — an association that would last nearly sixty years.
At The New Yorker, White became one of the defining voices of American letters. His essays — collected in books including One Man's Meat (1942) and Essays of E.B. White (1977) — are models of the personal essay form: precise, warm, funny, and shot through with a characteristic melancholy about the natural world and the passing of time.
White wrote three children's books, each considered a classic: Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte's Web (1952) and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970). Charlotte's Web in particular is considered one of the greatest children's books ever written in any language. It grew from White's experience keeping animals on his farm in Maine — his observation of a spider spinning her egg sac, and his grief at the thought of her death.
He was also the co-author (with William Strunk Jr) of The Elements of Style, first published in 1959 — the most widely read guide to English prose style in existence.
White died on 1 October 1985 in North Brooklin, Maine, at the age of 86.