Because I devote the bulk of Impromptus today to Mark Helprin – to his latest book, Digital Barbarism — much mail concerning Helprin has come in: expressions of appreciation, wonderment, and so on. (One reader keeps Helprin’s short-story collection The Pacific in her car, to read when she has to wait for any reason.) I’d like to comment on the e-mail of a particular reader, who was a friend of E. B. White’s. He talks about the similarity between White and Helprin: men of strong character, whose character comes through in their writing. And he refers to his late friend as “Andy.”

Did you know that E. B. White was called “Andy” by his friends? I didn’t, and am glad to count it as the “something new” you’re supposed to learn every day.