Hale White Explained

William Hale White
Birth Date:22 December 1831
Birth Place:Bedford, England
Death Place:Groombridge, England
Education:Bedford Modern School
Known For:Author

William Hale White (22 December 183114 March 1913), known by his pseudonym Mark Rutherford, was a British writer and civil servant.[1] [2] His obituary in The Times stated that the "employment of a pseudonym, and sometimes of two (for some of 'Mark Rutherford's' work was 'edited by his friend, Reuben Shapcott'), was sufficient to prove a retiring disposition, and Mr. Hale White was little before the world in person."[2]

Life, career and memorials

White was born in Bedford. His father, William White, a member of the Nonconformist community of the Bunyan Meeting, became well known as a doorkeeper at the House of Commons and wrote sketches of parliamentary life for the Illustrated Times.[3] A selection of his parliamentary sketches was published posthumously, in 1897, by Justin McCarthy, the Irish nationalist MP, as The Inner Life of the House of Commons.[4]

White himself was educated in Bedford at Bedford Modern School, then known as the English School,[5] until the family moved to London.[6] In 1848 he entered the Countess of Huntingdon's College, Cheshunt to train for the Congregational Ministry.[7] He developed increasingly unconventional views and in 1850 wrote to Thomas Carlyle who responded with a full reply encouraging him to stand by his convictions.[8] White later entered New College, London, but the further development of his views prevented him taking up that career and he was expelled for questioning aspects of scripture.[9] Hale White became known as a dissenter.[10]

In 1852 he was employed by John Chapman to work as a personal assistant and subscription tout at The Westminster Review. White was an early proponent of women's rights.[11] Having worked alongside her for The Westminster Review, White was a friend of George Eliot and they both lodged at 142 Strand, London which was owned by John Chapman.[12] [13] White wrote an article about his friendship with George Eliot for The Bookman in August 1902 entitled George Eliot as I knew her.[14]

In 1854, White joined the civil service, first as a clerk at the Registrar General's Office at Somerset House and later as a clerk at the Admiralty.[6] In 1861 he began writing newspaper articles to increase his income, having met and married Harriet Arthur in 1856 at the Congregational Church in Kentish Town, and started a family.[6] [9]

As a journalist he wrote for The Aberdeen Herald, The Birmingham Post, The Morning Star, The Nonconformist, The Rochdale News and The Scotsman.[15] Over fourteen years he wrote parliamentary sketches for The Birmingham Post.[15] He also contributed articles on literary figures in The Contemporary Review, Macmillan's Magazine, The Spectator, The Athenaeum, The Bookman and, the nonconformist, The British Weekly, including essays on Byron, Goethe, Shelley and Dorothy Wordsworth.[15]

White had already served his apprenticeship to journalism before he made his name, or rather his pen name, "Mark Rutherford", famous with three novels, supposedly edited by one Reuben Shapcott: The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford (1881), Mark Rutherford's Deliverance (1885) and The Revolution in Tanner's Lane (1887).[16] [17] George Orwell described Deliverance as "one of the best novels in English."[18]

Under his own name White translated Spinoza's Ethics (1883).[19] His later books include Miriam's Schooling, and Other Papers (1890), Catherine Furze (2 vols, 1893), Clara Hopgood (1896), Pages from a Journal, with Other Papers (1900), and John Bunyan (1905).[17]

Hale White died in Groombridge on 14 March 1913 at the age of 81.[2] One of his obituaries stated that:[20]

André Gide, in a letter dated 4 October 1915, thanked Arnold Bennett for recommending White's works.[21] Gide so admired The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford and Mark Rutherford's Deliverance that he considered writing French translations.[21] He stated that they had lifted him out of the 'slough of despond', a reference coined by Bunyan about whom White had written.[21]

D. H. Lawrence wrote about White's work:[22]

Claire Tomalin, the biographer of Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, wrote that White's novels:[23]

Mark Rutherford School in Bedford is named after him and he has a blue commemorative plaque at 19 Park Hill in Carshalton.[24] There is also a plaque above his birthplace in Bedford that was unveiled by his son, Sir William Hale-White.[25] [26] When he retired from the Admiralty in 1892, he lived in Hastings for a number of years where a memorial plaque commemorates him.[6]

Family

White's first wife, Harriet, died in 1891 of multiple sclerosis. Two of their children had died in infancy.[9] In 1907, the widower White met aspiring novelist Dorothy Vernon Horace Smith, the daughter of Horace Smith who was a magistrate and minor poet.[20] They fell in love and were married three and a half years later, but enjoyed only two years of married life before his death.[27] At the time of her marriage to White, Dorothy was forty-five years his junior.[20]

His eldest son by his first wife, Sir William Hale-White, was a distinguished doctor. His second son, Jack, married Agnes Hughes, one of Arthur Hughes's daughters. Arthur Hughes had himself produced a crayon drawing of Hale White in 1887.[28] A third son became an engineer, and White's daughter Molly remained at home to care for her father.[9]

Selected publications

Selected work as editor or note contributor

Quotes

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: subscription. White, William Hale, (22 Dec. 1831–14 March 1913), author. WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007. 10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U192185. 978-0-19-954089-1.
  2. News: 'Mark Rutherford' . . 42 . 1913-03-17 . 2020-04-19 . Newspapers.com.
  3. Book: Dictionary of Nineteenth-century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. 9789038213408. 12 July 2015. Brake. Laurel. Demoor. Marysa. 2009. Academia Press .
  4. William White, The Inner Life of the House of Commons, edited with a preface by Justin McCarthy, MP, London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1897
  5. Book: Bedford Modern School of the black & red. worldcat.org. 16558393.
  6. Web site: Mark Rutherford (William Hale White) - Digitised Resources - The Virtual Library. Bedford Borough Council and Central Bedfordshire Council. culturalservices.net. 12 July 2015.
  7. Web site: Timeline. www.davidfrench.org.uk.
  8. Kent and Sussex Courier, AUGUST 4 1933, p. 9
  9. Book: Michael Brealey. Bedford's Victorian Pilgrim: William Hale White in Context. 2014-07-08. Authentic Publishers. 978-1-78078-351-2. 20–.
  10. The Age, Annals of ENGLISH DISSENTERS, SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1946, Melbourne, Australia, p. 8
  11. Book: Fiction and 'The Woman Question' from 1850 to 1930. W. R.. Owens. Alexis. Weedon. Nicola. Darwood. 2 July 2020. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 9781527555594 . Google Books.
  12. Hale White and George Eliot. Wilfred H.. Stone. 5 November 1956. University of Toronto Quarterly. 25. 4. 437–451. 10.3138/utq.25.4.437 . 162039705 . Project MUSE.
  13. Web site: Rosemary Ashton on Victorian publisher John Chapman. Rosemary. Ashton. 4 November 2006. the Guardian.
  14. Book: Rintoul, M. C.. Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction. 5 March 2014. Routledge. 9781136119323 . Google Books.
  15. Book: Dictionary of Nineteenth-century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. Laurel. Brake. Marysa. Demoor. 5 November 2009. Academia Press. 9789038213408 . Google Books.
  16. Max Saunders, "Autobiografiction," Times Literary Supplement (3 October 2008), 13-15.
  17. Web site: Results for 'au:Rutherford, Mark,' [WorldCat.org]]. worldcat.org. 12 July 2015.
  18. Orwell, George, "As I Please," 3 December 1943, Tribune.
  19. Web site: Religion and Art of William Hale White (Mark Rutherford). Wilfred. Stone. 4 November 1954. Stanford University Press. Google Books.
  20. DEATH OF MR. W. HALE WHITE., VICTORIAN NOVELIST DIES AT GROOMBRIDGE, Kent and Sussex Courier, MARCH 21, 1913, p. 11
  21. Book: Sheridan, Alan. André Gide: A Life in the Present. 5 November 1999. Harvard University Press. 9780674035270 . Google Books.
  22. Book: Lawrence, D. H.. The Letters of D. H. Lawrence. 6 June 2002. Cambridge University Press. 9780521006927 . Google Books.
  23. Web site: Mark Rutherford - Conference - Literature and 'The Woman Question' | University of Bedfordshire. www.beds.ac.uk.
  24. Web site: WHITE, WILLIAM HALE (1831–1913). English Heritage. 2012-08-05.
  25. Web site: William Hale White Plaque - High Street, Bedford, Bedfordshire, UK - UK Historical Markers on Waymarking.com. www.waymarking.com.
  26. THE LEICESTER MERCURY, FAMED WRITER COMMEMORATED, Native Town To Honour 'Mark Rutherford', THURSDAY, 3rd DECEMBER, 1931, p. 18
  27. Web site: Obituary of Dorothy Vernon Horace Smith, The Times. 28 August 1967. 28 May 2016.
  28. Book: Saunders, Max. Self Impression: Life-Writing, Autobiografiction, and the Forms of Modern Literature. 22 April 2010. OUP Oxford. 978-0-19-161473-6 . Google Books.
  29. Web site: The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford. William Hale. White. 4 November 1881. Hodder and Stoughton. Google Books.
  30. Web site: The London and Westminster Review. 4 November 1883. Theodore Foster. Google Books.
  31. Web site: Mark Rutherford's Deliverance: Being the Second Part of His Autobiography. Mark. Rutherford. 4 November 1885. Oxford University Press. Google Books.
  32. Web site: The Revolution in Tanner's Lane. Mark. Rutherford. 4 November 1887. Trübner & Company. Google Books.
  33. Brief review of Miriam's Schooling, and other Papers. The Athenaeum. 3274. 26 July 1890. 124.
  34. Web site: Catharine Furze. William Hale. White. 4 November 1893. Macmillan. Google Books.
  35. Web site: Clara Hopgood. William Hale. White. 4 November 1896. T. F. Unwin. Google Books.
  36. Book: A Bookman's Catalogue Vol. 2 M-End: The Norman Colbeck Collection of Nineteenth-Century and Edwardian Poetry and Belles Lettres. T.. Bose. R. N.. Colbeck. 1 November 2011. UBC Press. 9780774844819 . Google Books.
  37. Web site: John Bunyan. William Hale. White. 4 November 1905. Hodder and Stoughton. Google Books.
  38. Book: White, W. Hale. More Pages from a Journal. 5 April 2018. BoD – Books on Demand. 9783732654857 . Google Books.

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