A review by jaytaves
Writings from the New Yorker 1927-1976 by E.B. White

5.0

It's crazy how many of these clips feel like they were written today, written with modern feelings towards a modern problem. I found it really cool to see the date each piece was written, so long ago and so foreign, and not think the piece was out of date at all. White always seemed to understand the pulse of the world and see things from an outsiders perspective - and what he saw didn't seem all that different from the world we see today. There's crazy patent law (Prohibited, 1932), our shrinking world (Travel Brochure), endless environmentalism (Hunger), the media echo chamber (Expediency), along with fake news and authoritarianism (A Voice Heard in the Land).

In particular White's writing about politics and McCarthyism (Our Political Exiles, Khruschchev and I, among others) seemed incredibly poignant and of course timely. Similarly the whole section on writing (The Word) was incredible. I did lose steam towards the second half of the collection, but clippings that I liked kept popping up and White's writing style was still a joy to read even if the particular clip didn't interest me as much.

In book order, here are my favorites from the first section

Dressing Up
Dismal?
Plant the Garden Anyway
Alarm-Geese
Turtle Blood Bank *(My absolute favorite I think)
Vermin
No Verbs
Motivation
Writing as a Profession
Anything Like That
Come One Come All
Blending In
Liberation of Paris
Khruschchev and I
The Living Language
Fitting In
Get a Handle On It