Monday, February 18, 2008

Charlotte’s Web

In the Introduction to the Penguin English Library edition of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights editor David Daiches quotes Charlotte Bronte (author of Jane Eyre) saying of herself & her siblings, “We wove a web in childhood.”

I suppose someone knows whether this is the source of E.B. White’s title Charlotte’s Web? That book, of course, has nothing to do with the Brontes. Charlotte is a spider who adds words to her morning web in order to dissuade a farmer from killing a pig.

E.B. White was quite the erudite writer; coming across the Charlotte Bronte quote might’ve sparked an idea that grew into a story. Where do you get your ideas?

2 comments:

David Lee Ingersoll said...

I steal them from my cats.

Glenn Ingersoll said...

No doubt they've absorbed many an idea through osmosis, snoozing on heaps of ideas.