The writer E. B. White (1899–1985) is best known for his children’s books, “Charlotte’s Web,”“Stuart Little” and “The Trumpet of the Swan.” Columnist for The New Yorker for over half a century and co-author of Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style”, White hit his stride as an American literary icon when he began publishing his “One Man’s Meat” columns from his saltwater farm on the coast of Maine.

In “E. B. White on Dogs,” his granddaughter and manager of his literary estate, Martha White, has compiled the best and funniest of his essays, poems, letters, and sketches depicting over a dozen of White’s various canine companions. Featured here are favorite essays such as “Two Letters, Both Open,” where White takes on the Internal Revenue Service, and also “Bedfellows,” with its “fraudulent reports” from White’s ignoble old dachshund, Fred. From The New Yorker’s “Talk of the Town” are some little-known Notes and Comment pieces covering dog shows, sled dog races, and the trials and tribulations of city canines. Chief among them was a Scotty called Daisy who was kicked out of Schrafft’s, arrested, and later run down by a Yellow Cab, prompting The New Yorker to run her “obituary.” Some previously unpublished photographs from the E. B. White Estate show the family dogs, from the first collie to various labs, Scotties, dachshunds, half-breeds, and mutts, all well-loved.

Martha White has herself been a full-time freelance writer and editor since 1987 and has a broad background in journalism, opinion columns, syndicated features, humor articles, book reviews, essays, and fiction. She worked as a contributing editor for about 17 years for Yankee Publishing and The Old Farmer's Almanac, and for much of that time she wrote two weekly syndicated columns for them through the United Feature syndicate. At the same time, she was free lancing with published articles in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, Country Journal, Down East Magazine, Early American Life, Family Circle, Garden Design, Hope Magazine, Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors, New Choices, New Women, Readers Digest (reprints), Yankee Magazine and other national publications.

Martha White is the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library’s featured speaker at its monthly Literary Luncheon beginning at 11:45 a.m. on January 10. The location is the Boothbay Harbor Town Hall. The lunch, provided by the East Boothbay General Store, costs $10. Please register and prepay by coming to the library’s Meadow Mall location anytime during their business hours. They are open Tuesday through Saturday. Register early to secure your spot. For more information, call the library at 633-3112.