The Book Review Digest Retrospective includes citations, abstracts and some excerpts of book reviews published in English language periodicals between 1908-1982. The reviews are of adult and juvenile fiction and non-fiction. You can browse or search by author or review author, subject, publication year, title, etc.
A search for the title Charlotte’s Web retrieves 15 citations from publications such as The Horn Book, New Statesman and Nation, Springfield Republican, the New York Times, etc. A search for the author, “White, Elwyn Brooks” produces 13 records for the books The Fox of Peapack, and other poems, Stuart Little, A Subtreasury of American Humor, The Wild Flag, and others. A search for the author “White, E.B.” produces a different set of titles, including the book Elements of Style for which White wrote a chapter on writing for the second edition.
Whether meandering or drilling, the Book Review Digest Retrospective provides a fascinating path to commentary on literature at the time of its publication. About Stuart Little, R.C. Benet says in the Saturday Review of Literature (Dec. 8th, 1945), “The humorous, wise quality found in E. B. White’s other work is reflected here in miniature.” Words that portend a classic in the making?
