David Masello on E.B. White:

Reading an essay by White is akin to exploring a Colonial-era house to which many wings have been added over the years. In a readerly walk-through, you take a step up or down, follow a dark hallway to a room that was once a porch, duck your head as you re-enter an original part of the house with wide-planked floors that slope. His windows would be the kind fitted with wavy, Bull's-Eye-glass panes that reveal what is beyond, but with an added dimension. His essays ramble in ways that make you want to follow along. He never strays far from the primary topic, and every detour he takes is compelling.