From his tumultuous beginning to his glorious retirement, Wilbur, the pig who plays the central role of E. B. White's well-known children's work, Charlotte's Web (1952), appeals to readers of all ages. Chatting away with his animal neighbors, the ducks, and his sly rat friend, Templeton, Wilbur's comfortable life has only one complication: the threat of his impending appointment with the slaughter table.

However, Wilbur leaves his fate to Charlotte, his trusted eight-legged friend, and her ingeniousness proves as surprising and delightful to him as it is to the human world for which it is intended. A classic from the time of its first printing, Charlotte's Web remains an integral part of the canon of children's literature today.

1. John Griffith masterfully reflects upon the innocence E. B. White's story represents and explores why it was the ideal story for its time: an era when America reveled in the end of the last of the great wars, but never forgot the Great Depression. Likewise, Korea was a discomforting but distant place for the people of the 1950s, as distant as was the chopping block to Wilbur.

Opening with a concise yet thorough chronology of E. B. White's life, Griffith successfully proceeds to show the reader how E. B. White's life-style, notably White's own experience as a Maine farmer, is reflected in Charlotte's Web. Especially enlightening is Griffith's comparison of the author's writing style as a New Yorker magazine contributor to that used in Charlotte's Web.

Finally, Griffith asks - and answers - the most puzzling question of this deceptively simple tale, namely, "Why should a pig be saved at all?" John Griffith's Charlotte's Web: A Pig's Salvation is a guide to understanding one of the most charming tales ever written.