Authors Worth Collecting: Inspiration and Aspiration

I like to collect authors. These are people who write books with characters who stay with me, a storyline that engrosses me or offers such insight into history that I learn from the facts woven into the story.

For me, these authors are people like E.B.White, Madeline d”Engle, Roald Dahl, and Mary Doria Russell, as well as Lauren Belfer, writers of historical fiction. If I was stretching it I could include Maeve Binchy, Carolyn Keen, and a few others, for the enjoyment of their stories or well-developed characters.

Children’s Literature

E.B. White’s birthday was two days ago. He would have been 123 years old being born on July 11tth, 1999. Whenever I hear his name, see a quote, or pass the title of one of his books, I am taken back to being a young girl and relive the pleasure I had in reading Charlotte’s Web. The story of an unlikely friendship between a pig and a spider, farm yard antics, the coming of age of a young girl, and the fact that death is part of life is truly an inspiring tale. Charlotte’s Web (1952) is one of my all-time favorite books.

A few of the books by E.B. White that I own. © Carol Labuzzetta, 2022

I think I also look up to White in that he wasn’t just one kind of author. He was an essayist, consummate stylist, as well as a children’s author. I wonder if anyone today could have as broad a reach. I somewhat doubt…