Let’s remember when the Seattle Times fired E.B. White, on this day in 1923 (June 19)
E.B. White is almost always on the lists of greatest writers of the twentieth century. He was a writer for The New Yorker for fifty-some years, and Charlotte’s Web is one of the most revered children’s books of all time, as is Stuart Little. So it should come as something of a surprise that White wasn’t a good enough staff writer for the Seattle Times.
On June 19, 1923, The Seattle Times fires the future preeminent (emphasis on future) American essayist E. B. White (1899–1985). White is 24 years old, living the life, in his words (written years later), “of exalted footlessness.” As a newspaper reporter, he noted, he was “almost useless.” Looking back into his journals in which he made a record of his time in Seattle, White reflects: “As a diarist, I was a master of suspense, leaving to the reader’s imagination everything pertinent to the action of my play. I operated, generally, on too high a level for routine reporting, and had not at that time discovered the eloquence of facts. I can see why the Times fired me. A youth who persisted in rising above facts must have been a headache to a city editor.”
White got the job on the Times in September 1922 and he was fired in June 1923. Then he worked for a short stint as a substitute on the Post-Intelligencer. Then he hung around. A month after being fired, he boarded the S. S. Bufordfor Alaska. His essay “The Years of Wander” recounts that eventful trip. The most exciting events on the Buford occurred while he served as messboy to the firemen. In one exciting event, he dumped slops overboard onto a much bulkier person’s head and had to run for his life.
Read the whole thing here:
