E.B. White on youth and going to Alaska
- There is a period near the beginning of every man’s life when he has little to cling to except his unmanageable dream, little to support him except good health, and nowhere to go but all over the place.
- My entry for June 15, 1923, begins, ‘A man must have something to cling to. Without that he is as a pea vine sprawling in search of a trellis.’ Obviously, I was all asprawl, clinging to Beauty, which is a very restless trellis.
- I had no reason for going to Alaska, I had no reason for staying away, either…
- I believed in giving Luck frequent workouts. It was part of my philosophy at that time to keep Luck toned up by putting her to the test; otherwise she might get rusty.
- I can still recall experiencing an inner relief—the feeling of again being adrift on life’s sea…
- To me, forty days was a mere siesta in time’s long afternoon.
From “The Years of Wonder”
