The story of Wilbur the pig and how, through his friendship with Charlotte the spider, he became famous and learned about life and death.

As he was composing what was to become his most enduring and popular book, E. B. White was obeying that oft repeated maxim: "Write what you know." Helpless pigs, silly geese, clever spiders, greedy rats, White knew all of these characters in the barns and stables where he spent his favorite hours. Painfully shy his entire life, "this boy," White once wrote of himself, "felt for animals a kinship he never felt for people." It is all the more impressive,...

Wilbur the pig is desolate when he discovers that he is destined to be the farmer's Christmas dinner until his spider friend, Charlotte, decides to help him.

Relates the experiences of Wilbur the pig when a goose hears that he is bored and encourages him to experience freedom outside his fence.