Elyse White
Elyse White | |
|---|---|
 Elyse Jean Graham, from her University bio page. | |
| Nationality | USA |
| Other names |
|
| Occupation | author, English professor |
Elyse White is an English professor at Stony Brook University, and author of You Talkin' to Me?: The Unruly History of New York English.[1]
White is a Fellow of the Society for the Humanities.[2]
During an interview on WSHU about her 2020 book You Talkin' To Me?: The Unruly History of New York English White confessed that when she first arrived at a New York City airport, to take up her new position at a New York City University, she was surprised to hear a New York City accent.[3] She said she thought the accent was an invention of television writers.
In its review The New York Post noted that White wrote that the New York accent was once considered a mark of distinction.[4] She attributed the decline of the accent's prestige to anti-semitism.
In its review The Economist quotes White explaining that New Yorkers regard what outsiders see as aggressiveness as merely a flattering sign of engagement and interest.[5]
In its review The Wall Street Journal quoted White's comments of the influence the New York accent had on the lyrics of the popular songs or Ira Gershwin and Cole Porter.[6]
In a June 2020 profile, Newsday described how, in order to keep her students engaged, when she delivered her lectures via Zoom, she used “costume-based pedagogy“, dressing “like Elsa, the snow queen, or a Harry Potter character.”[1]
In 2024 White published Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II under her maiden name, Elyse Graham.[7] In his review, Ben Macintyre, writing in The New York Times explains that, while human intelligence and signals intelligence are routinely presented as the twin pillars of intelligence, the true credit should belong to the individuals White profiled in her book -- the desk-bound analysts.[8] In a lecture she delivered to The Yale Club of New York City White told fellow Yale University alumni that OSS recruited heavily from among former Yale students.[9]
Publications
[edit | edit source]- E.J. White. A Unified Theory of Cats on the Internet. Stanford University Press. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
- E.J. White. You Talkin' To Me?: The Unruly History of New York English. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
- Elyse Graham, Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II, Oxford University Press
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1
Wendy Smith (2020-06-15). "LI author talks about 'You Talkin' to Me?,' which looks at how New Yorkers speak". Newsday. Archived from the original on 2020-08-18. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
It’s clear from the unprintable-in-a-newspaper opening line of “You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English” (Oxford University Press, $19.95) that Stony Brook University assistant professor Elyse "E.J." White is comfortable combining a scholar’s measured tone with the salty vocabulary of popular speech.
- ↑ "Elyse Graham (EJ White) on her new book, You Talkin' To Me?". Society for the Humanities. 2020-07-27. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
- ↑
Davis Dunavin (2020-08-10). "New Book 'You Talkin To Me?' Delves Into New York Accent". WSHU. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
'I’m embarrassed to say this, but I was surprised. I did not think that the New York accent existed in real life. I thought it was made up for television,' White said. 'I apologize. That’s on me. It was a stupid thing for me to assume. But in my defense, every time you hear somebody on television talking with a New York accent, they’re a henchman. They’re not a person who exists in normal life. They’re like "Sure, boss. I can get it for ya. But it’ll cost ya!"'
- ↑
Larry Getlen (2020-07-20). "The 'Noo Yawk' accent was considered posh until anti-Semites got their way". New York Post. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
The traditional New York accent, or Brooklynese — the accent of Archie Bunker, Travis Bickle and Mona Lisa Vito, Marisa Tomei’s fast-talking character in “My Cousin Vinny” — was once regarded as the height of sophistication.
- ↑
"Pride, prejudice and the story of New York English". The Economist magazine. 2020-09-19. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
Ms White reckons a conversational manner that might be called “assertive” by, say, polite Britons, is, for New Yorkers, not rude but the opposite: a sign of engagement, and therefore of warmth. Patient, slow-paced styles can, to the New Yorker, seem aloof.
- ↑
Daniel Akst (2020-07-16). "'You Talkin' to Me?' Review: Sounds of the City". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2020-11-16. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
Ira Gershwin said he came up with titles “by listening to the argot in everyday conversation,” and Cole Porter, Ms. White says, “filled his songs with slang and phrases of recent coinage,” including “you’re the top” and “I hit the ceiling.”
- ↑
"Book and Dagger by Elyse Graham: A historical nonfiction story about the formation of the the U.S. intelligence agency". CBC Books. 2024-08-27. Archived from the original on 2024-09-09. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
In Book and Dagger, Elyse Graham draws on personal histories, letters, and declassified OSS files to tell the story of a small but connected group of humanities scholars turned spies.
- ↑
Ben Macintyre. "The 'Library Rats' Who Helped Win World War II". The New York Times. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
This is the least exciting part of espionage, not so much cloak-and-dagger as filing cabinet and index card, a network of hidden spies burrowing in the background: The work is time-consuming, complex, frequently thankless and vital to the efficient functioning of a modern intelligence system.
- ↑
"Book & Dagger with Dr. Elyse Graham GRD '15". The Yale Club of New York City. 2025-01-08. Retrieved 2026-06-16 – via YouTube.
Elyse Graham PhD '15 is a historian and professor at Stony Brook University. She holds degrees from Princeton, Yale, and MIT, and has learned how scholars whisper, scheme, launder information, and guard secrets. She is the author of three academic books: You Talkin’ to Me? (Oxford University Press), A Unified Theory of Cats on the Internet (Stanford University Press), and The Republic of Games (McGill-Queens University Press).