to convince the reader that all memories are interconnected in the mindĮ. to discuss the infallibility of memory to recall facts correctly from the pastĭ. to persuade the reader to travel to the secluded wilderness to experience lifeĬ. to reflect on an important experience in his life that he hopes to pass on to his childrenī. I guess I remembered clearest of all the early mornings, when the lake was cool and motionless, remembered how the bedroom smelled of the lumber it was made of and of the wet woods whose scent entered through the screen.īased on this excerpt, what is White’s purpose in writing this essay?Ī. You remember one thing, and that suddenly reminds you of another thing. It is strange how much you can remember about places like that once you allow your mind to return into the grooves that lead back. I was sure that the tarred road would have found it out, and I wondered in what other ways it would be desolated. I wondered how time would have marred this unique, this holy spot-the coves and streams, the hills that the sun set behind, the camps and the paths behind the camps. On the journey over to the lake I began to wonder what it would be like. I took my son, who had never had fresh water up his nose and who had seen lily pads only from the train windows. This post contains IndieBound affiliate links.Read the following excerpt from "Once More to the Lake" by E. His noticing, and the care he took in writing down his noticing, are what makes his letters so much fun to read.ĭo you enjoy reading collections of letters? ( I love them.) And are you a good noticer? His precise observations of daily life, his keen insights into human nature, all hinged on his powers of observation. But at all times, in all places, he was a good noticer. ![]() White was, at times, a poet, a social critic, a quixotic dreamer, a children’s novelist, a newspaperman, a humorist, an amateur cartoonist and an essayist. But as he grew older, he spent more and more time on his farm in Brooklin, Maine, raising chickens and pigs and various other animals, followed around by his dogs. First and foremost, Once More to the Lake by E.B White develops the theme by applying amazing flashbacks and outstanding sensory details. (D) the sense that he is both his father and his son. He harbored a deep love for New York, where he was born and raised, even writing a gorgeous, elegiac essay about it. The two passages Once more to the Lake and Forgetfulness both use devices to develop the common theme that of, time is the greatest enemy. Answers to the Reading Quiz on 'Once More to the Lake' by E. 1 In 'Once More to the Lake,' White revisits his ideal boyhood vacation spot. It chronicles his pilgrimage back to a lakefront resort, Belgrade Lakes, Maine, that he visited as a child. He never quite understood all the fuss people made over him and his work. ' Once More to the Lake ' is an essay first published in Harper's Magazine in 1941 by author E. White often doubted his own skill as a writer, even as he wrote weekly essays and shorter pieces for The New Yorker, and worked on his three books for children. She dismisses his worries about never having been to school, but when he wonders if he could learn animal language, she asks him a vital question:Īre you a good noticer? Do you notice things well? Polynesia, the Doctor’s wise parrot, is talking to the narrator, Tommy Stubbins, a boy who will become the Doctor’s new assistant. His life may have been quiet, but it was peopled with fascinating characters, including Katharine Harold Ross, longtime editor of The New Yorker fellow writers his family members and Ursula Nordstrom, the longtime children’s editor at Harper’s, whose letters I also read and loved.Īs I read White’s letters, chuckling at his witty observations (and frequently reading the choicest bits aloud to J), I kept thinking of a scene from The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle. ![]() Once I finally picked it up, I found myself charmed again by White’s keen eye, dry humor and gift for understatement. Intimidated by the collection’s size, I let it sit on my shelf for a year. At nearly 700 pages, it’s too heavy to carry on the subway and hold in one hand, so I kept it at home, dipping into it morning and evening.Īfter reading a fascinating biography of White and then his essays last fall, I found his letters at the Brattle (complete with newspaper clippings from 1977 featuring an interview with White and a New Yorker tribute to his wife, Katharine, after her death). White’s collected letters lived on my bedside table. From mid-September to early November, E.B.
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