Who is Alice Burchfield from Letters of E. B. White and what is their importance?

Alice Burchfield, a seemingly conventional middle class girl, was the focus of E.B. White's romantic interest as an undergraduate and in the year afterwards. During his motor trip around the country with Howard Cushman, White writes long, agonizing letters to Alice and decides to stop at Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y. where she is still a student to surprise her one day. He waits for hours at a spot where he expects her to show up, and then leaves in disappointment. He then writes her a long, apologetic, self-lacerating letter. Confused by White's advance/retreat approach, Alice becomes engaged to someone else.