William Allen White

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William Allen White

William Allen White
Born February 10, 1868
Emporia, Kansas, United States
Died January 31, 1944
Emporia, Kansas
Education College of Emporia and University of Kansas
Occupation newspaper editor, author
Spouse Sallie Lindsay
Children William, Mary
Parents Allen, Mary Ann

William Allen White (February 10, 1868 – January 31, 1944) was a renowned American newspaper editor, politician, and author. Between World War I and World War II White became the iconic middle American spokesman for thousands throughout the United States.

Contents

[edit] Life

Born in Emporia, Kansas, White moved to El Dorado with his parents, Allen and Mary Ann Hatten White, where he spent the majority of his childhood.[1] [2] He attended the College of Emporia and University of Kansas and in 1892 started work at The Kansas City Star as an editorial writer.

[edit] Emporia Gazette

White purchased his hometown newspaper, the Emporia Gazette for $3,000 in 1895.[2] He rocketed to national fame and influence in the Republican Party with an August 16, 1896, editorial entitled "What's the Matter With Kansas?"[3] The paper is still run by the descendents of White.

[edit] Progressive politics

White developed a friendship with President Theodore Roosevelt in the 1890s until Roosevelt's death in 1919. Roosevelt spent several nights at White's Wight and Wight-designed home, Red Rocks, during trips across the United States. The house is now a museum and is on the National Register of Historic Places. White was to say later, "Roosevelt bit me and I went mad."[4] The two would be instrumental in forming the Progressive (Bull-Moose) Party in 1912 in opposition to the forces surrounding incumbent Republican president William Howard Taft.[5] Later, White opposed Franklin D. Roosevelt in each of his four elections as president.

[edit] Personal life

White married Sallie Lindsay in 1893. They had two children, William Lindsay, born in 1900, and a daughter Mary, born in 1904. Mary died in a 1921 horse-riding accident, leading White to write a famous eulogy "Mary White" on August 17, 1921.[6][7]

[edit] Sage of Emporia

The last quarter century of White's life was spent as an unofficial national spokesman for middle America. This led President Franklin Roosevelt to ask White to help generate public support for the Allies before America's entrance into World War II. White was fundamental in the formation of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, sometimes known as the White Committee.[8] White spent much of his last three years involved with this committee.

Sometimes referred to as the Sage of Emporia, he continued to write editorials for the Gazette until his death in 1944. He was also a reviewer for the Book of the Month Club.

[edit] Success

He won a 1923 Pulitzer Prize for his editorial "To an Anxious Friend", published July 27, 1922, after being arrested in a dispute over free speech following objections to the new Kansas Industrial Court law pushed by rival publisher and then Governor Henry Justin Allen.

Objecting to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the state, he made an unsuccessful run for Kansas Governor in 1924. White was an early supporter of the Progressive Party led by Robert M. La Follette, Sr.

[edit] After death

His autobiography, which was published posthumously, won a 1947 Pulitzer Prize.

Life described him:

He is the small-town boy who made good at home. To the small-town man who envies the glamour of the city, he is living assurance that small-town life may be preferable. To the city man who looks back with nostalgia on a small-town youth, he is a living symbol of small-town simplicity and kindliness and common sense.[9]

The University of Kansas Journalism School is named for him. There are also two awards the William Allen White Foundation has created: The William Allen White Award for outstanding Journalistic merit and The Children's Book Award.

[edit] Rock group's use of White's image

Starting in the 1980s, alternative rock group They Might Be Giants used large cardboard cutouts of White's face during many concerts, as well as in the video for "Don't Let's Start". His image also appears on the compact disc (CD) single, several other videos, and is used at live performances.[10]

[edit] Quotations

From editorial Mary White:

A rift in the clouds in a gray day threw a shaft of sunlight upon her coffin as her nervous, energetic little body sank to its last sleep. But the soul of her, the glowing, gorgeous, fervent soul of her, surely was flaming in eager joy upon some other dawn.[6]

From 1933 editorial about the futility of war (referring to World War I):

The boys who died just went out and died. To their own souls' glory of course -- but what else? ... Yet the next war will see the same hurrah and the same bowwow of the big dogs to get the little dogs to go out and follow the blood scent and get their entrails tangled in the barbed wire.[11]

From an editorial published in February 1943, shortly after President Franklin D. Roosevelt returned from the Casablanca Conference with Winston Churchill:

"We who hate your gaudy guts salute you."

[edit] Published works

White had 22 works published throughout his life. Many of these works were collections of short stories, magazine articles, or speeches he gave throughout his long career.

[edit] Poetry

[edit] Biographies

  • Woodrow Wilson, The Man, His Times, and His Tasks (1924)
  • Calvin Coolidge, The Man Who is President (1925)
  • Masks in a Pagaent (1928)
  • A Puritan in Babylon: The Story of Calvin Coolidge (1938)
  • The Autobiography of William Allen White (1946)

[edit] Fiction

  • The Real Issue: A Book of Kansas Stories (1896)
  • The Court of Boyville (1899)
  • Stratagems and Spoils: Stories of Love and Politics (1901)
  • In Our Town (1906)
  • A Certain Rich Man (1909)
  • God's Puppets (1916)
  • The Martial Adventures of Henry & Me (1918)
  • In the Heart of a Fool (1918)

[edit] Political and social commentary

  • The Old Order Changeth: A View of American Democracy (1910)
  • Politics: The Citizen's Business (1924)
  • Some Cycles of Cathay (1925)
  • Boys-Then and Now (1926)
  • What It's All About: Being A Reporter's Story of the Early Campaign of 1936 (1936)
  • The Changing West: An Economic Theory About Our Golden Age (1939)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ William Allen White House: History. Kansas State Historical Society (2008). Retrieved on 2008-03-30.
  2. ^ a b William Allen White Biography. Kansas University School of Journalism (2008). Retrieved on 2008-03-30.
  3. ^ White, William Allen. "What's the Matter with Kansas?". Emporia Gazette. Retrieved on 2008-03-30.
  4. ^ Family History: William Allen White. Emporia Gazette (1996–2000). Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
  5. ^ Johnson, Walter F. (1947). William Allen White's America. Henry Holt and Company, Chapter 10. 
  6. ^ a b White, William Allen. Family History: Mary White. Emporia Gazette. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
  7. ^ White, William Allen. Mary White (pdf). Kansas State Historical Society. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
  8. ^ Namikas, Lise (2008). The Committee to Defend America and the Debate Between Internationalists and Interventionists, 1939-1941. High Beam Encyclopedia. High Beam Research, Inc.. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
  9. ^ Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame: William Allen White. Kansas Press Association. Retrieved on 2008-03-31.
  10. ^ The TMBG Knowledge Base. This Might Be a Wiki. MediaWiki (2008). Retrieved on 2008-04-06.
  11. ^ Sherry, Michael S. (1995). In the Shadow of War: The United States Since the 1930s. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 26. ISBN 0300072635. 

[edit] External links

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