Today’s first line if from E.B. White’s Stuart Little:
“When Mrs. Frederick C. Little’s second son arrived, everybody noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse.”
White managed the rare feat of being a fine essayist–his lean prose style, gently humorous, yet fierce, set a standard for American mid-century prose–and writing two children’s classics; I loved them (and even liked his third) and also spent many years trying, fruitlessly, to catch the rhythm of his lines.
A Few Reasonable Words 