Some Writer, The Story of E.B. White by Melissa Sweet

“SOME PIG,” Charlotte the spider’s praise for Wilbur, is just one fondly remembered snippet from E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web. In Some Writer!, the two-time Caldecott Honor winner Melissa Sweet mixes White’s personal letters, photos, and family ephemera with her own exquisite artwork to tell his story, from his birth in 1899 to his death in 1985. Budding young writers will be fascinated and inspired by the journalist, New Yorker contributor, and children’s book author who loved words his whole life. This authorized tribute is the first fully illustrated biography of E. B. White and includes an afterword by Martha White, E. B. White's granddaughter. 

 

 

 

 

 

On why the typewriter is the thematic design for the book

When I was researching E.B. White, the manual typewriter came up all the time. He used it as a child, all through his life. ... If there was one object that I thought represented E.B. White, it was the manual typewriter. So as a collage artist I wanted to use the pieces of a typewriter — the keys, the font and — in fact I typed up all of his quotes on a manual typewriter.

On what she learned about White's creative process

I was curious from the start about how he wrote his children's books. And each one surprised me; that Stuart Little came to him in a dream, one he had on a train. He woke up and wrote it all down. That was the beginning of Stuart Little. ...

 

 

 

On her own process and how she distilled White's story into an illustrated biography

The trick was that there was so much information, so the fun is that we find ways to make it consistent throughout. So, all the archival pieces are on — for instance — a light green paper.

Hopefully the reader goes along and doesn't notice the design so much, but just that the book flows. The design of it makes it like a jigsaw puzzle and, to be honest, I think it's the most fun part.

Once you know what you want to say and you have all this material fitting it together, finding the right pieces is really fun. It's akin to making one collage. It's the same — you're pushing pieces around until you hit on, you don't want to touch it — you've nailed it.