The Power of Servant-Leadership

7

My Debt to E. B. White

In 1929, when I moved to New York, I was immediately attracted to The New Yorker magazine, that was then in its fifth year, and to E. B. White, who had helped make it a remarkable magazine, and who had been on the staff for three years. My debt to Mr. White, after 55 years of living with his writings, stems from two gifts that are rarely possessed by one person: the ability to see things whole, or more whole than most, and the language to tell us ordinary mortals what he sees.

I am not a literary person, but I know that White’s writing style is greatly admired among some literary folk. His revision of Strunk’s The Elements of Style is a widely used text. He is sometimes identified as a humorist, and I find good laughs ...