Conan O'Brien letter to E.B. White found at Cornell nearly 40 years later

Maggie Gilroy | Ithaca Journal

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When he was a junior in high school, Conan O'Brien wrote a letter to author E.B. White. O'Brien explained that he had recently received "The letters and essays of E.B. White" as a gift, and had become a fan of White's.

A few weeks ago, the comedian and host of TBS talk show "Conan" mentioned the letter on his podcast.

And thanks to the staff at the Cornell Library, the letter was found in E.B. White's archives at Cornell University, where White graduated in 1921.

O'Brien tweeted a photo of the letter on Thursday. Since the tweet was published, it's received 24,200 "likes," and has been retweeted 1,800 times as of Friday morning.

E.B. White was kind enough to respond to my letter. I have this letter framed in my home and I still read it often. pic.twitter.com/ItZ7XIkVse — Conan O'Brien (@ConanOBrien) December 5, 2019

"It was our pleasure," the library tweeted back.

"Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda quoted O'Brien's original post, simply writing "incredible."

"I thought I should tell you that I enjoyed both of your letters and your essays very much," O'Brien wrote in the letter. "I've been thinking of becoming a writer, but I hear that even the best are criticized and I don't take criticism well."

He went on to explain that his favorite of White's essays was "Walden."

"Somehow, you managed to deal with such a difficult topic naturally, you put it into perspective, and you held and 11th grader's attention (the latter is the most outstanding)," he said.

In the letter, O'Brien asked: "if you have the time, I would like to hear from you."

And he did.

In a response to O'Brien, dated Jan. 17, 1980, White wrote: "I thank you for your letter and am pleased to learn that I restored somebody's faith in education. You, on our part, restored mine — by writing a legible and well constructed letter. You should see some of the letters I get."

O'Brien shared a photo of White's response in another tweet. He explained that the letter is framed in his home, and he still reads it often.

"If you don't take criticism well, you will have a rough time as a writer, because you will surely be criticized, no matter how well you do," White wrote. "I never minded it much, except when the critic had his facts wrong."

Cornell's E.B. White Collection contains documents throughout his life. White's books include "Charlotte's Web," "The Elements of Style" and "Stuart Little."

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