Hale White

William Hale White (22 December 1831 – 14 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]

This article is about the British writer. For the English footballer, see Mark Rutherford (footballer).

William Hale White
1887 crayon drawing by Arthur Hughes (1832–1915)
Born(1831-12-22)22 December 1831
Died14 March 1913(1913-03-14) (aged 81)
EducationBedford Modern School
Known forAuthor

Life, career and memorials
Plaque on his birthplace

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][4] 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.[5]

White himself was educated at Bedford Modern School[6] until the family moved to London.[7] There he was trained for the Congregational ministry, but the development of his views prevented his taking up that career; the same unconventional views got him expelled from New College, London,[8] and he eventually became a clerk at the Admiralty.[3][7] In 1861 he began writing newspaper articles to increase his income, having met and married Harriet Arthur and started a family.[8]

He had already served an 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).[9][3][10] George Orwell called Deliverance "one of the best novels in English."[11]

Under his own name White translated Spinoza's Ethics (1883). 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).[3][10]

Hale White died in Groombridge on 14 March 1913 at the age of 81.[2]

There is now a Mark Rutherford School in Bedford and a blue plaque commemorates White at 19 Park Hill in Carshalton.[12]

Family

White's first wife, Harriet, died in 1891 of multiple sclerosis. Two of their children had died in infancy.[8] In 1907, the widowed White met aspiring novelist Dorothy Smith, who was forty-five years his junior. They fell in love and were married three and a half years later, but enjoyed only two years of married life before his death.[13]

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' daughters. A third son became an engineer, and White's daughter Molly remained at home to care for her father.[8]

Selected publications
  • The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford: Dissenting Minister Trubner and Co., London, 1881
  • Mark Rutherford's Deliverance Trubner and Co., London, 1885
  • The Revolution in Tanner's Lane Trubner and Co., London, 1887
  • Miriam's Schooling Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., London, 1890[14]
  • Catharine Furze T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1893
  • Clara Hopgood T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1896

Notes
  1. "White, William Hale, (22 Dec. 1831–14 March 1913), author". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U192185. ISBN 978-0-19-954089-1.
  2. "'Mark Rutherford'". The Times. 17 March 1913. p. 42. Retrieved 19 April 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Rutherford, Mark". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 940.
  4. Brake, Laurel; Demoor, Marysa (2009). Dictionary of Nineteenth-century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. ISBN 9789038213408. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  5. William White, The Inner Life of the House of Commons, edited with a preface by Justin McCarthy, MP, London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1897
  6. Bedford Modern School of the black & red. worldcat.org. OCLC 16558393.
  7. Bedford Borough Council and Central Bedfordshire Council. "Mark Rutherford (William Hale White) - Digitised Resources - The Virtual Library". culturalservices.net. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  8. Michael Brealey (8 July 2014). Bedford's Victorian Pilgrim: William Hale White in Context. Authentic Publishers. pp. 20–. ISBN 978-1-78078-351-2.
  9. Max Saunders, "Autobiografiction," Times Literary Supplement (3 October 2008), 13-15.
  10. "Results for 'au:Rutherford, Mark,' [WorldCat.org]". worldcat.org. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  11. Orwell, George, "As I Please," 3 December 1943, Tribune.
  12. "WHITE, WILLIAM HALE (1831–1913)". English Heritage. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
  13. "Obituary of Dorothy Vernon Horace Smith, The Times". 28 August 1967. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  14. "Brief review of Miriam's Schooling, and other Papers". The Athenaeum (3274): 124. 26 July 1890.

References
  • Cunningham, Valentine. "White, (William) Hale (1831–1913)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36864. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  • Dawson, William James (1905). "Religion in Fiction". The Makers of English Fiction (2nd ed.). F.H. Revell Co. pp. 283–289.
  • Feuchtwanger, E. J. (2004). "White, William (1807–1882)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press.
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