Radiant and Terrific: E.B. White Reading Charlotte’s Web

Great story on NPR by Melissa Block a few days back, paying tribute to E.B. White’s immortal Charlotte’s Web. Follow the links to listen to White himself reading an excerpt. Also, be sure to listen to the New Yorker Out Loud interview with Jill Lepore and Roger Angell about White’s Stuart Little. As our intern Adam Shoemaker wrote last month:

On the New Yorker Out Loud podcast, Matt Dellinger speaks with Jill Lepore about her piece on E.B. White’s decidedly unmousy classic Stuart Little. Roger Angell, E.B. White’s stepson, also joins in the conversation. Lepore talks about her fascination with the piece—and the lengths to which that drove her research. The real story, says the author, is not the battle between E.B. White and the celebrated librarian Ann Carroll Moore, but rather the sometimes noble, sometimes cosseted vision of children’s literature the Victorian Moore tried—ultimately, unsuccessfully—to impose on America’s young readers.

Related: Emily’s beef with the stereotypical voice casting for the live-action movie version of Charlotte’s Web.