Elwyn Brooks White was born on July 11, 1899, in Mt. Vernon, New York. After graduating from Cornell University, he worked briefly for an advertising agency and as a newspaper reporter before joining the staff of The New Yorker magazine in 1927. As a columnist for The New Yorker and a contributor to Harper's Magazine, White established a reputation as a prose stylist of exceptional elegance, clarity and wit. His interests, as reflected in his writing, were numerous and varied; his essays touched on such wide-ranging subjects as politics, farm animals, and life in New York City. White married Katharine S. Angell in 1929. They had one son, and in 1957 the family left New York for a farm in… North Brookline, Maine. Writings from The New Yorker, 1927-1976 is a compilation of columns and essays produced during White's long relationship with the magazine. One Man's Meat, published in 1942, is a collection of his writings for Harper's. White adapted a short guide to English grammar and usage, The Elements of Style, from a college text written by one of his professors at Cornell, William Strunk Jr. It has sold millions of copies since it was first published in 1959 and has become a cherished resource for guidance in writing. White also co-authored Is Sex Necessary? with the humorist James Thurber, a fellow staff member at The New Yorker. E.B. White died on October 1, 1985 after succumbing to Alzheimer's. His diverse legacy also includes three children's books: Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, and The Trumpet of the Swan. In 1970 the American Library Association presented White the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in recognition of his "substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children." He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 and received a special Pulitzer Prize citation for his body of work in 1970.
Rosemary Wells, author and illustrator of several dozen books for children and young adults, was born in 1943 in New York City. She studied at the Museum School at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Wells began her career in publishing, working as an art editor and designer first at Allyn and Bacon and later at Macmillan Publishing. Her first work, which she both wrote and illustrated, was Martha's Birthday, published in 1970. Her first work for young adults was The Fog Comes on Little Pig Feet, published in 1972. Wells is perhaps most famous for the Max series, beginning with Max's First Word, published by Dial in 1979. Although the primary audience for the series is very young children,… the books appeal to the senses of humor of even small children. Wells says that the inspiration for these stories is her own children. Wells is the recipient of numerous awards including a Children's Book Council Award for Noisy Nora in 1974, the Edgar Allan Pie award for two young adult books, Through the Looking Glass and When No One Was Looking, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Shy Charles. Rosemary Wells is married to Thomas Moore Wells, an architect. The couple has two daughters.