E. B. White, Reconsidered (Zoom)
Winter (14+ hours) | FULL (Membership Required)
Nearly 40 years have passed since E.B. White’s death in October of 1985, but rarely can a week pass in one’s life without hearing his name mentioned in some public context, his words quoted, or the name of one of the characters alluded to. This phenomenon hints at a kind of immortality, but it is hard to imagine that if E.B. White were alive today, he would achieve the same notoriety as he did in his own time.
To address this paradox, this class will read closely three of his books: One Man’s Meat, Stuart Little, and Essays of E.B. White. This will be a discussion class where everyone should expect to participate, and our weekly reading assignments will run roughly 100 pages. By the end of the course, we should have both a firm understanding of his work in its historical context and an informed position on whether or not we expect people to be still reading him in another 40 years.
This course will consist of discussions between the Study Leader and participants.
Required Books:
- One Man’s Meat - E. B. White (ISBN-13: 978-0884481928)
- Essays of E. B. White - E. B. White (ISBN-13: 978-0060932237)
- Stuart Little - E. B. White (ISBN-13: 978-0064400565)
Jon Stableford
Jon holds degrees from Williams College and Wesleyan University and for 43 years taught secondary school English, the last 34 of them at Phillips Academy, Andover, MA. In 2010, he and his wife Cindy retired to South Strafford, VT and have ever since had a close relationship with Osher at Dartmouth. He writes occasional pieces for The Valley News.