E. B. White

The sixth child born in his family, Elwyn Brooks White grew up in New York and went on to attend Cornell University. After graduating, he worked at newspapers and magazines around the country before landing at the prestigious New Yorker magazine in 1927. He rose to prominence as an editor there over the years, all the while composing essays, poetry, style books (The Elements of Style is a guide to American English usage that is still used as a gold standard today), and children’s novels such as Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web, and The Trumpet of the Swan. White and his family maintained a second residence on a farm in Maine, where White was able to be in and around nature, one of his life’s great passions. He passed away at the farm in 1985 after a struggle with Alzheimer’s, having built a storied career encompassing awards such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal for Literature, and the Newbery Medal—the latter was a prize he earned in 1953 for Charlotte’s Web, his best-known work to many Americans, which is now regarded as a classic of children’s literature.