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]

William Hale White
1887 crayon drawing by Arthur Hughes (1832–1915)
Born	(1831-12-22)22 December 1831
Died	14 March 1913(1913-03-14) (aged 81)
Education	Bedford Modern School
Known for	Author

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][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

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.

External links

Wikisource has original works by or about:
William Hale White

• Works by Hale White at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Mark Rutherford at Internet Archive
• Works by or about Hale White at Internet Archive
• Works by Hale White at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Mark Rutherford Resource