Once More to the Lake

“Once More to the Lake” is a narrative nonfiction essay written by E. B. White. The essay was originally published in Harper’s Magazine in 1941. White (1899-1985) was an American author best known for his children’s novels, including Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, as well as his contribution as co-author to The Elements of Style, a seminal English-language writing guide. “Once More to the Lake” recounts White’s experience of revisiting, as an adult, a lakefront camp in Maine that his family frequented when he was a child.

White begins by describing his family’s first visit to the lake in 1904, when he was five. Despite a few hiccups, “the vacation was a success and from then on none of [White’s family] ever thought there was any place in the world like that lake” (1). Although his family’s annual visits to the lake are well in the past, White finds himself yearning to go back and plans a vacation with his son. On his way to the lake, White wonders “how time would have marred” the campsite and whether “tarred road would have found it out” (1).