During one of our long talks in Phoenix last month, Wilma Mathews, übercommunicator and my kind host for the week, reminded me that E.B. White's first job out of college was as editor of some company's house organ (that was what they called employee publications back then). He found the job dull, and too cushy.
Under the spell of a cocktail, Wilma and I allowed ourselves to dream of what the employee communication business might have become had White applied his energies and his great and subtle mind to this work, instead.
It's fun to think about, but I wouldn't give up Charlotte's Web, or even "Once More to the Lake," for that matter, in exchange.
(Maybe he could have written them on the side.)
This is pretty funny, because if you read Charlotte’s Web with a Communicator’s eye, I think you will find that it is a perfect allegory for a corporate environment.
Try it: read Scout the book today and see if you don’t agree with me!
I would suggest that E.B. White did what he was so good at – using stories to subtly tell us things we need to [but don’t always pay attention long enough to] hear and learn from. So, in essence, he kind of DID apply “his energies and his great and subtle mind to this work…”
I think there’s plenty of us E.B.s out there who write for THE MAn during the day, and pound out our novels/columns at night. I for one, share the same initials! The two professions complement one another quite nicely, and one actually pays the bills.