Wind the Clock
Background
In March 1973 a man named Mr. Nadeau wrote to E.B. White — author of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, co-author of The Elements of Style, then in his seventies and living on a saltwater farm in Maine — to say he had lost his faith in people and saw little hope for the future.
White’s answer is three short paragraphs. It doesn’t argue. It offers a sailor’s saying about the weather, a small Sunday-morning ritual, and a line people have been copying onto index cards and refrigerator doors ever since.
From the letter
North Brooklin, Maine
30 March 1973
Dear Mr. Nadeau:
As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.
· · ·
Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.
Sincerely,
E. B. White
Copyright. This letter is still under copyright, held by the estate of E.B. White, so this page quotes its first and last lines rather than the whole. The middle paragraph, about sailors and the weather, is the best part to read for yourself: the letter appears in full in Shaun Usher’s Letters of Note and on the Letters of Note website.