E. B. White Tonight: Part 1 of "Afternoon of an American Boy"

AP caption: "J. Parnell Thomas, chairman of House Un-American Activities Committee (right) and Robert E. Stripling, committee investigator, examine films to be shown to the committee investigating the degree of Communist infiltration in the motion picture industry." Thomas plays a major role in E. B. White's "Afternoon of an American Boy," of which we have the first half tonight in "E. B. White Tonight."

"Considering that we lived so near each other, we were remarkably uncommunicative; nevertheless, [Eileen] was the girl I singled out, at one point, to be of special interest to me. Being of special interest to me involved practically nothing on a girl's part -- it simply meant that she was under constant surveillance."

-- White, in "Afternoon of an American Boy"

by Ken

This week in "E. B. White Tonight" we're drawing on the 1954 White anthology The Second Tree from the Corner. Apart from some background on Congressman Thomas, which we'll get to in the click-through, "Afternoon of an American Boy" doesn't seem to me to require any introduction. Rather the opposite: It provides us with some invaluable introduction to America's greatest essayist.

For anyone who missed last night's kickoff of "E. B. White Tonight," which featured the amazing 1951 New Yorker "Notes and Comment" piece "Air Raid Drill," well, you really don't want to miss it.


FOR OUR BACKGROUND ON J. PARNELL THOMAS AND
PART 1 OF "AFTERNOON OF AN AMERICAN BOY," CLICK HERE


THURBER TONIGHT (including BENCHLEY, WILL CUPPY, WOLCOTT GIBBS, RING LARDNER, BOB AND RAY, and E. B. WHITE TONIGHT): Check out the series to date

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