Chickens, Gin, and a Maine Friendship: The Correspondence of E. B. White and Edmund Ware Smith

E.B. White · Edmund Ware Smith

May 2020 · Down East Books

About this ebook

During the 1950s and ’60s, writers E.B. White and Edmund Ware Smith carried on a long correspondence by letter, despite living only a few miles apart on the coast of Maine. Often the letters were written from one or the other while they were traveling, but missing their homes and friends. The letters represent a witty and charming correspondence between two literary giants, their stories of Maine, the beauty of our region, and the trials and tribulations of living here.

Introduced by White's granddaughter, Martha White, the letters show their first formal communications, their chummy middle years, right up to the death of Edmund Ware Smith. Throughout, there is a strong sense of place and community.

About the author

E. B. White (1899–1985) was an American writer. For more than fifty years, he was a contributor to The New Yorker magazine. He was also a co-author of the English language style guide The Elements of Style. In addition, he wrote books for children, including Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, and The Trumpet of the Swan. In a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers, Charlotte's Web was voted the top children's novel. He lived for much of his life in Brooklin, Maine.

Edmund Ware Smith (1900–1967) wrote more than 600 short stories and essays, many of which were gathered into a total of nine books about the Maine woods and its characters. He lived in Damariscotta, Maine.

Martha White, the granddaughter of E.B. White, is a writer and editor who lives on the coast of Maine. A longtime contributing editor to Yankee Magazine and The Old Farmer's Almanac, her work has been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Early American Life, Country Journal, Down East Magazine, and numerous other national magazines and small presses. She lives in Damariscotta, Maine.

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