It’s the birthday of William Strunk Jr. (1869-1946), who in 1919, while a professor of English at Cornell University, wrote and self-published The Elements of Style, a guide to English usage and composition; he intended the book only as an in-house guide. Strunk’s student, E. B. White, revised and expanded the book forty years later, [...]
It’s the birthday of artist Garth Williams (1912-1996), who illustrated such children’s classics as Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web, and the Little House books. Williams was born in New York City to parents who were both artists. His father was a cartoonist, and his mother was a landscape painter. The family moved to a farm in [...]
It’s the birthday of E.B. White (1899-1985), best known for his classic children’s novel Charlotte’s Web (1952) and for The Elements of Style (published privately in 1919 by William Strunk, expanded and revised in 1959 by White), both of which have sold millions of copies. Elwyn Brooks White was born in Mount Vernon, New York, [...]