The Mad Woman in the Barnyard: Revealing the Role of Advertising in E. B. White's Charlotte's Web

Abstract: White's under-investigated advertising experience informs Charlotte's Web at a time when women's labor in the field was largely invisible. Charlotte's methods and skills reflect White's knowledge of techniques: the soft sell, market segmentation and research, slogans, and even questions of truth in advertising. She is both maternal figure and skilled career avatar.