A Great Author for Children
E.B. White, the author of twenty books of prose (散文)and poetry, was awarded the 1970 Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for his children's books, Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web. This award is now given every three years to an author or illustrator whose books are published in the United States, and whose books have made a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.
The year 1970 also marked the publication of Mr. White' s third book for children, The Trumpet of the Swan. And this book 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 as their favorite book” of the year.
Born in Mount Vernon, New York, Mr. White attended public schools there. He was graduated from Cornell University in 1921, worked in New York for a year, and then traveled around. After five or six years of trying many kinds of jobs, he joined the staff of The New Yorker magazine, which was then in its infancy. The experience proved a happy one and resulted in a steady output of poems, essays, and novels.
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 and bad for one，s disposition, 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.
For his total contribution to American letters, Mr. White was awarded the 1971 National Medal for Literature. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy named Mr.White as one of thirty-one 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. He also received honorary degrees from seven colleges and universities. Mr. White died on October 1, 1985.
8.His inspiration to write Stuart Little was to entertain a six-year-old niece of his.