Word: swanning
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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White's third children's book, The Trumpet of the Swan, although filled with prose as great as the first two, is slightly disappointing. At first I thought that the fact that I'm 20 insead of eight had something to do with my let-down. But I reread the other two, and if anything they seemed better than they did 12 years...
...TRUMPET is, in White's words, the story of "a young swan who had a speech defect and conquered it." Louis, a trumpeter swan, is born without a voice. His father-an eloquently verbose swan-promises to help, but still
...White's other books, the line between human and animal is very faint. Louis befriends a small boy, Sam, who takes the swan to his school in Montana to learn how to read and write. ("If I can teach a bird to write," says Mrs. Hammerbotham, first grade teacher, "it'll be big news all over the Sweet Grass country. I'll get my picture in Life magazine. I'll be famous...
...writing on a small slate he carries around his neck does Louis no good-when he returns home none of the other swans can read. He falls in love with Serena, a lovely young swan, who ignores...
...knows enough about the Golden Gate jumper to rough in his profile. Typically, he is a man (three out of four jumpers) in his 40s, and a Bay Area resident. Experience has taught observers to rule out the pedestrian who climbs a cable and poises irresolutely before the swan dive. Such behavior usually describes the "pseudo suicide," who does not really mean business; he can be coaxed, if necessary, to climb down...