埃尔文·布鲁克斯·怀特②

　　埃尔文·布鲁克斯·怀特（Elwyn Brooks White, 1899-1985），美国当代著名散文家、评论家，以散文名世，最为世人称道的一篇是《湖畔重游》（Once More to the Lake）。
　　E·B·怀特1899年生于纽约。1918年他从美军中退役，入康奈尔大学就读，1921 年毕业，期间曾担任《西雅图时报》等多家媒体的记者。1924 年，他回到纽约，当了一位广告撰稿人。1926或1927年，他来到《纽约客》杂志社作编辑工作，随后11年里，他为杂志写下了大量的散文和诗歌。1929 年他和凯瑟琳结婚（1941年夫妻二人共同撰写了《美国幽默文库》一书）。不久，怀特开始为《新纽约周刊》工作。但是，直到他和他的同事兼朋友詹姆斯·特伯合著的《性是必需的吗？》一书在同年出版后，怀特才真正引起了文坛的注意。
　　1938年至1943年间，作为《哈珀斯》杂志的专栏作家，怀特为“个人观点”专栏撰写了大量的散文。这些“怀特式”散文在1942年结集出版，被评论界认为是怀特最优秀的一本散文集。
　　1939年，怀特搬到缅因州北布鲁克林的一个农场，作为一名自由作家继续写作。1959年，怀特出版了文体学专著《文体的要素》，该书被广泛地用作美国院校的教材。
　　怀特写过三部童话：《小老鼠斯图尔特》（1945）、《夏洛蒂的网》（1952）、《天鹅的喇叭》（1970），前两部均已被搬上银幕。《夏洛蒂的网》至今已发行500万余册，拥有20多种文字的译本，是怀特最受欢迎的童话作品。在美国《出版周刊》1976年进行的读者调查中，《夏洛蒂的网》位居“美国十佳儿童文学名著”的首位，曾有一位小读者写信问怀特：“你的童话故事是真的吗？”怀特回答道：“不，他们是想象出来的故事，但真实的生活也不过是生活的一种罢了，想象里的生活也算一种生活。”
　　1985年10月1日，怀特因罹患阿尔兹海默病在缅因州北布鲁克林去世。
　　由于怀特在散文创作等方面取得的突出成绩，他生前曾获多项殊荣：1971年，他获得美国“国家文学奖章”；1973年，他当选美国文学艺术学院50名永久院士之一；1978年，他获得普利策特别文艺奖；此外，他还获得了美国七家大学及学院的名誉学位。
　　怀特的主要作品有：《女士是冷酷的》（1928），《性是必需的吗？》（1929），《美国幽默文库》（1941），《个人观点》（1942），《小老鼠斯图尔特》（1945），《野菖蒲》（1946），《这里是纽约》（1949），《夏洛蒂的网》（1952），《角落里的第二棵树》（1954），《文体的要素》（1959），《我罗盘的方位》（1962），《天鹅的喇叭》（1970），《怀特散文》（1977），《诗与小品》（1981），《纽约客文选1925-1976》（1990）。
　　《夏洛蒂的网》在北京西单图书大厦B1外文原版书专柜有售。
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　　Biography
　　If you've seen the movie Stuart Little then you'll probably know that the film was based on the original book, Stuart Little, written by Elwyn Brooks White. Mr. White lived on a farm in Maine where he kept animals, and some of these creatures made their way into his stories and books, like Stuart in Stuart Little, or Charlotte in Charlotte's Web. After all, as E.B. White said, 'I like animals, and my barn is a very pleasant place to be, at all hours!'
　　E. B. White was born in Mount Vernon, New York, and went to public schools there. He graduated from Cornell University in 1921, worked in New York for a year, then traveled about. After five or six years of trying many sorts of jobs, he joined the staff of The New Yorker magazine. He wrote satirical sketches, poems, essays, and editorials.
　　In 1938, Mr. White moved to the country. On his farm in Maine he kept animals, and some of these creatures got into his stories and books. Mr. White said he found writing difficult, but he kept at it. He began Stuart Little in the hope of amusing a six-year-old niece of his, but before he finished it, she had grown up.
　　White was awarded the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for his children's books Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web. His third children's book, The Trumpet of the Swan, was honored by The International Board on Books for Young People as an outstanding example of literature with international importance. In 1973, it received the Sequoyah Award (Oklahoma) and the William Allen White Award (Kansas), voted by the school children of those states as their 'favorite book' of the year.
　　His essays appeared in Harper's Magazine, and his books (for adults) include One Man's Meat, The Second Tree from the Corner, Letters of E. B. White, The Essays of E. B. White, and Poems and Sketches of E. B. White. He wrote a total of 20 books of prose and poetry!
　　Mr. White was awarded the 1971 National Medal for Literature, and in 1963, President John F. Kennedy named him as one of 31 Americans to receive the Presidential Medal for Freedom. Mr. White also received the National Institute of Arts and Letters' Gold Medal for Essays and Criticism, and in 1973 the members of the Institute elected him to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a society of 50 members. He also received honorary degrees from 7 colleges and universities.
　　Mr. White died of Alzheimer's Disease on October 1, 1985.
　　E.B. White also wrote books for adults, as well as writing poems and essays, and drawing sketches for The New Yorker magazine. Funnily enough for such a famous writer, he always said that he found writing difficult and bad for one's disposition, but he kept at it!
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　　Stories Behind the Books
　　1. Stuart Little has been a celebrity in children's literature for over 50 years. How did he first come to life?
　　One night E. B. White went to bed in a railway sleeping car. During the night, he dreamed about a tiny boy who acted rather like a mouse. When he woke up he began writing the famous story that we all know as Stuart Little. That's how the story of Stuart Little got started. This little mouse has already become a big star to hit movie screens.
　　2. How did E. B. White think up the story for Charlotte's Web?
　　E. B. White put it this way, 'I had been watching a big grey spider at her work and was impressed by how clever she was at weaving. Gradually I worked the spider into the story that you know, a story of friendship and salvation on a farm.'
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　　Quotation Guide
　　One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.
　　When I was a child people simply looked about them and were moderately happy; today they peer beyond the seven seas, bury themselves waist deep in tidings, and by and large what they see and hear makes them unutterably sad.
　　A man who publishes his letters becomes a nudist — nothing shields him from the world's gaze except his bare skin. A writer, writing away, can always fix himself up to make himself more presentable, but a man who has written a letter is stuck with it for all time.
　　Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
　　Television hangs on the questionable theory that whatever happens anywhere should be sensed everywhere. If everyone is going to be able to see everything, in the long run all sights may lose whatever rarity value they once possessed, and it may well turn out that people, being able to see and hear practically everything, will be specially interested in almost nothing.