Not to be outdone by Mark Twain, E.B. White's old house is for sale as well.

If you're looking to buy a famous writers New England farmhouse, but Mark Twain's humble $1.85 million Connecticut abode doesn't do it for you, drive deeper into the northern reaches of New England and there you can take a gander at E.B. White's $3.7 million property now up for sale in rural, coastal Maine.

Like Twain, E.B. White's former shack is a sprawling farmhouse--although White's has a literary connection beyond the author himself. The property includes the barn that inspired White to write Charlotte's Web.

Located in North Brooklin--or roughly a five hour drive northeast of Boston--the 44 1/2 acre saltwater farm sits beside the Atlantic with 2,000 feet of shore frontage. Included is a boathouse, a pond, meticulous gardens, and the aforementioned barn, which includes the rope swing mentioned in the book.

Never to let an animal-inspired moment pass unnoticed, PETA has reached out to the real estate agent in charge via a press release, asking that "the owners convert the home into an empathy museum for pigs, complete with a vegan café offering veggie sausages, vegan BLTs, and more."

Wait--PETA isn't done yet with ideas. The organization continues:

"E.B. White's portrayal of a pig named Wilbur inspired people all over the world to take a closer look at the animals they consider to be 'food' and go vegan," PETA President Ingrid Newkirk wrote. "A PETA museum in his historic farmhouse would help visitors see that every pig is some pig, an intelligent individual and not a collection of sausages, bacon, and chops."

Okay, well, we know that isn't happening. Forget the vegan angle. PETA must be anticipating literally tens of people to drive five hours from civilization to have a veggie BLT.




photo: Mark Fleming / Yankee Magazine

Famous Writers with Dogs: E.B. White

Writers need inspiration somewhere in life, and for many that inspiration comes from their pet dogs.

This is a running series where we post pictures of famous writers with their canine companions--the cute, the cuddly, the creepy. And that's just the writers.


Today: E.B. White

What dachshunds lack in height they make up for in great literary insight.

Give this dog opposable thumbs and he'll knock out 120 words per minute--and catch a squirrel before lunch. In the meantime, he just needs a ghostwriter.

With stubby legs like that, which of these individuals do you really think wrote Stuart Little, hmm?

'Charlotte's Web' reimagined with Albert Camus instead of Charlotte.

American xenophobia means if you mention the name Albert Camus to 100 of your fellow citizens, 99 of them won't have a clue who you're talking about. The one person who does know is very likely related to Albert Camus, and even then they're probably probably going to hesitate before saying yes.

But good ol' Al is a stalwart standby here, mainly because of the way he died--yet he won the Nobel Prize in 1957 and made a name for his depressing view of the world and a fantastic ability to chain smoke.

So someone over at McSweeney's decided to reimagine Charlotte's Web, swapping out Charlotte the spider with Albert the philosopher.

And just like Camus, the story is short, to the point, and a little bit delightfully absurd.