On Democracy

Now in paperback. Folks familiar with WoodenBoat will realize the connection with EB White. So you'll understand that while this book isn't boaty, it is EB White. And it's brilliant.  Introduction by historian and former editor of Newsweek magazine, Jon Meacham, who writes: "Few things are as perishable as prose written for magazines (sermons come close as do the great majority of political speechs), but White, arguably the finest occasional essayist of the twentieth century, endures because he wrote plainly and honestly about he things that matter the most, from life on his farm in Maine to the lives of nations and of peoples.  Known popularly more for his books for children (Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little) than his corpus of essays, White is that rarest of figures, a writer whose ordinary run of work is so extraordinary that it repays our attention decades after his death." This book is, as with One Man's Meat, a collection of EB White essays, letters, and poems. You may be struck by just how timeless are his observations. And if you're familiar with his other works, you may not be surprised at all. But you will be comforted with the always concise perspective.  "As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness." --EB White, On Democracy   "... This doesn't make an America Firster a Facist. It simply makes him, in our opinion, a man who hasn't grown into his pants yet." --From August 7, 1943, in a piece titled Definition of Facism It's a book that will likely be picked up and tapped into over the years.   by EB White, edited by Martha White    203 pp., softcover, 5-1/2" x 8" EB White (1889-1985) lived in New York City, and Brooklin, Maine. Contributor to The New Yorker, and author of more than 20 books, including Charlotte's Web, The Trumpet and the Swan, and Stuart Little,  and of course, Elements of Style (Strunk & White). His son was Joel White, naval architect and designer of the Haven 12-1/2, Shellback Dinghy, Nutshell Pram, the original W-Class, and so many more.  Joel built his dad a boat, a Crocker sloop which is one of the handsome boats on our WoodenBoat waterfront, as it's now in the hands of School director (emeritus) Rich Hilsinger. The boat's name? Martha.  NYT covered the eulogy in 1985