(Elwyn Brooks White), 1899–1985, American writer, b. Mt. Vernon, N.Y., grad. Cornell, 1921. A witty, satiric observer of contemporary society, White was a member of the staff of the early New Yorker magazine. He wrote "The Talk of the Town"; some of these columns were collected in The Wild Flag (1946). In addition to much light, graceful, and humorous verse, he wrote Is Sex Necessary? (with James Thurber, 1929), Quo Vadimus? (1939), One Man's Meat (1942), Here Is New York (1949), and The Points of My Compass (1962). He edited A Subtreasury of American Humor (1941) with his wife, Katherine. A superb literary stylist himself, White revised The Elements of Style (1959) by William Strunk, Jr. He alsp penned three delightful stories for children, Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte's Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970).

See his selected essays (1977); letters, ed. by D. L. Guth (1989); biography by S. Elledge (1984); study by E. C. Sampson (1974).

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