I just read Sarah's question, do others find the writings in "One Man's Meat" to be timeless. My answer is a resounding "Yes"! I have to keep reminding myself that most of the essays were written before 1942.

I just read Sarah's question, do others find the writings in "One Man's Meat" to be timeless. My answer is a resounding "Yes"! I have to keep reminding myself that most of the essays were written before 1942.

What I like about this book is that while reading it, I can feel removed from both the world in which I live today and the world in which E.B.White lived, yet, strangely, at the same time, feel like the worlds are more alike than different.

I am not reading every essay with an equal amount of attention because some appeal to me more than others. My favorite so far is “Salt Water Farm.”

This quote is poignant and hilarious:

“Six days later I timidly presented myself at the local store, bearing three dozen strictly fresh twenty-four-ounce fancy brown eggs, neatly packaged, to be credited to my account. I don’t know anything that ever embarrassed me more, unless it was the day in St. Luke’s Hospital when I misunderstood the nurse’s instructions and walked into the X-ray room naked except for my socks and garters.”

All of us have felt uncomfortable in new and different situations, and who can’t relate to being unsure and embarrassed in healthcare situations?! Commentaries like this on the human condition make the book timeless.

The story Sabbath Morn, was one of my favorites. I love how E.B. White weaves different realities together: the radio worship program, the young child who is in his own world reading a book, the father who is editing a portfolio of important papers. Then he introduces his reverie about his grandfather, he adds a dog behaving like a dog, “…one of the dogs sinned under the piano, and the Dogtex is all gone.” He sees this as a problem in household management that is ‘inflicting itself’ on the peace of the Sunday morning. An aside..I had to do a google search to find out that Dogtex is some kind of deodorant/stain remover. No one in my family (I polled several people of EBW’s generation) had heard of it.
I constant insertion of quotes from the radio showed that he was not able to ignore the radio; neither did he exhibit any inclination to turn it off. I found myself wondering if he was using the radio church session to quiet an uneasy conscience that was niggling him that he should have been in church instead of working on the Sabbath.
I hear the same comments today from my adult offspring about the lack of relevance of organized religion and how ‘boring’ church is on Sundays. As many others have noted, his writing is so timeless he could have written this piece yesterday not 60 years ago.
I am enjoying this book. The essays are just long enough to treat a subject well, without dragging out the topic. I can hop around to read what interests me and not feel I’m doing the work an injustice. I really must find a copy to put in my personal library. It’s one I’m going to want to go back to over and over again.

The story Sabbath Morn, was one of my favorites. I love how E.B. White weaves different realities together: the radio worship program, the young child who is in his own world reading a book, the father who is editing a portfolio of important papers. Then he introduces his reverie about his grandfather, he adds a dog behaving like a dog, “…one of the dogs sinned under the piano, and the Dogtex is all gone.” He sees this as a problem in household management that is ‘inflicting itself’ on the peace of the Sunday morning.

An aside..I had to do a google search to find out that Dogtex is some kind of deodorant/stain remover. No one in my family (I polled several people of EBW’s generation) had heard of it.
The constant insertion of quotes from the radio showed that he was not able to ignore the radio; neither did he exhibit any inclination to turn it off. I found myself wondering if he was using the radio church session to quiet an uneasy conscience that was niggling him that he should have been in church instead of working on the Sabbath. He finally validated that perception in the final paragraphs of the essay.

I hear the same comments today from my adult offspring about the lack of relevance of organized religion and how ‘boring’ church is on Sundays. As many others have noted, his writing is so timeless he could have written this piece yesterday not 60 years ago.
I am enjoying this book. The essays are just long enough to treat a subject well, without dragging out the topic. I can hop around to read what interests me and not feel I’m doing the work an injustice. I really must find a copy to put in my personal library. It’s one I’m going to want to go back to over and over again.