“SALUTATIONS! ” SPOKEN FROM a barn’s rafters, this greeting begins one of the most unlikely and special friendships in literature, that between Charlotte A. Cavatica, a spider, and Wilbur, a young pig. In Charlotte’s Web (1952), Charlotte saves Wilbur from slaughter by spinning words like “TERRIFIC” and “RADIANT” into her web above his pen. The author Elwyn Brooks White (1899–1985), known as Andy to friends and as E. B. White to readers, called Charlotte’s Web “a story of friendship and salvation on a farm,” inspired by the animals in his Maine barn. Charlotte’s Web was the second of White’s three children’s books, which punctuated a successful career as a journalist and essayist. Wallow in this quick quiz about the author of one of the best-loved children’s books.
1. What is the name of the eight-year-old girl who adopts the newborn Wilbur, saving him from Papa’s ax?
2. What is the first message that Charlotte spins into her web?
3. What word does Charlotte write above Wilbur’s pen because he is “not proud” and “close to the ground”?
4. Charlotte’s Web was turned into an animated film in 1973 and into a live-action film with computer animation in 2006. Which other children’s classic by E. B. White became a movie with both live action and computer animation?
5. For what nonfiction book is E. B. White best known?
6. What is White’s third and final children’s book?
ANSWERS
1. Fern Arable.
2. SOME PIG.
3. HUMBLE.
4. Stuart Little, published in 1945.
5. The Elements of Style. White’s sharp observations of modern life were staples of the New Yorker’s “Talk of the Town” column for decades, and he distilled his guidelines for writing clearly and elegantly in the book, originally written by his Cornell professor, William Strunk Jr.
6. The Trumpet of the Swan (1970).