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Sign up todayThe Story of Charlotte’s Web
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Learn moreAs he was composing what was to become his most enduring and popular book, E. B. White was obeying that oft-repeated maxim: "Write what you know." Helpless pigs, silly geese, clever spiders, greedy rats—White knew all of these characters in the barns and stables where he spent his favorite hours. Painfully shy his entire life, "this boy," White once wrote of himself, "felt for animals a kinship he never felt for people." It's all the more impressive, therefore, how many people have felt a kinship with E. B. White.
With Charlotte's Web, which has gone on to sell more than forty-five million copies, the man William Shawn called "the most companionable of writers" lodged his own character, the avuncular author, into the hearts of generations of readers.
In The Story of Charlotte's Web, Michael Sims shows how White solved what critic Clifton Fadiman once called "the standing problem of the juvenile fantasy writer: how to find, not another Alice, but another rabbit hole" by mining the raw ore of his childhood friendship with animals in Mount Vernon, New York. Translating his own passions and contradictions, delights and fears, into an all-time classic. Blending White's correspondence with the likes of Ursula Nordstrom, James Thurber, and Harold Ross, the E. B. White papers at Cornell, and the archives of HarperCollins and the New Yorker into his own elegant narrative, Sims brings to life the shy boy whose animal stories—real and imaginary—made him famous around the world.
Michael Sims is the author of several books, including The Story of Charlotte’s Web, which was named a best book of the year by the Washington Post and Boston Globe. He edits The Connoisseur’s Collection series of Victorian anthologies, including Dracula’s Guest, The Dead Witness, and The Phantom Coach.
Nick Sullivan has narrated audiobooks for over twenty years and has recorded over four hundred titles. An Audie Award winner, he is also the recipient of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards. He has worked extensively on Broadway and at many U.S. theaters. Nick's TV credits include The Good Wife, The Affair, Divorce, Younger, Bull, Madam Secretary, Boardwalk Empire, 30 Rock, Elementary, and all three Law and Order series. His film credits include Our Idiot Brother and Private Life. He is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA. Nick is also the author of the novel Zombie Bigfoot.
Reviews
“Michael Sims’ The Story of Charlotte's Web is built on revealing glimpses of how ‘reality and fantasy make good bedfellows,’ as White himself wrote…In the best part of the book, Sims traces how much endless rewriting as well as research on spiderweb construction went into Charlotte's Web…The Story of Charlotte’s Web should encourage rereadings of Charlotte’s Web.”
“Sims offers an affectionate homage to E. B. White and his enduring trio: a spunky farm girl, a smart spider, and a remarkable pig.”
“Tells the story of a shy author who ‘felt for animals a kinship he never felt for people,’ and who, at fifty, drew upon childhood memories of a stable in Mount Vernon, New York, to spin the iconic story of a spider who saved a pig.”
“Michael Sims goes back to Zuckerman’s farm to weave the story of Charlotte’s Web.”
“Intriguing…Sims illuminates an era of journalism and essay-writing through the war. His style also sings in tune with White’s lyricism, especially in descriptions of nature and the farm.”
“A full, engaging account…Sims includes wonderful anecdotes…The Story of Charlotte’s Web unfolds in a way that White might have appreciated: it ambles, pauses to observe the smallest details, and takes its time. Best of all, this book is likely to encourage readers to experience the pleasures of White’s novel all over again.”
“A fitting echo to the resolution of Charlotte’s Web…Sims’ research is thorough, his own prose clear, direct, and concise: the ultimate homage. His book is a lovely and empathetic testament to E. B. White’s vision of ‘nature publishing herself.’”
“Sims recounts the wellsprings—familial, psychological, environmental, historical, educational, emotional and every other ‘al’ you can think of—about the little novel that tells how a spider named Charlotte saved a pig named Wilbur from being rendered into bacon…Mr. Sims’ writing captures White’s affection for his creatures and fits the mood of his subject nicely.”
“In this immensely charming book, Michael Sims sketches White’s life along with that of what is perhaps his most enduring creation, the children’s classic Charlotte’s Web.”
“Sims reveals the development of writer E. B. White as he created one of the most cherished and popular of children’s books…Readers of Charlotte and Wilbur’s adventure will learn just how much care and thought was put into rendering this classic work.”
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