“I am a member of a party of one, and I live in an age of fear.”
These words were written by E. B. White in 1947.
Decades before our current political turmoil, White crafted eloquent yet practical political statements that continue to resonate. “There’s only one kind of press that’s any good—” he proclaimed, “a press free from any taint of the government.” He condemned the trend of defamation, arguing that “in doubtful, doubting days, national morality tends to slip and slide toward a condition in which the test of a man’s honor is his zeal for discovering dishonor in others.” And on the spread of fascism he lamented, “fascism enjoys at the moment an almost perfect climate for growth—a world of fear and hunger.”
Anchored by an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham, this concise collection of essays, letters, and poems from one of this country’s most eminent literary voices offers much-needed historical context for our current state of the nation—and hope for the future of our society. Speaking to Americans at a time of uncertainty, when democracy itself has come under threat, he reminds us, “As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman . . . the scene is not desolate.”
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“One of the great narrators, Arthur Morey takes the simple beauty of White’s well-wrought words and delivers them eloquently…Morey’s tone, tempo, and style are pitch perfect for White, who lucidly enumerates those elemental matters that make a democracy—from the letter to the editor to waiting until the bell sounds before fighting. In short, pithy essays White takes on the bigoted (the House Un-American Activities Committee) and the boorish (America Firsters). White’s wit is ever present, and Morey artfully captures his plainspoken humor. Few have put prose to better use. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
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