William White (September 4, 1910 – June 24, 1995) was an American journalist, writer, educator and literary historian. He was professor of
Journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...
and
American Studies
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory.
Schol ...
at
Wayne State University
Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...
from 1947 to 1980, and set up and chaired the journalism program at
Oakland University.
He edited collections of the works of
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...
,
A. E. Housman
Alfred Edward Housman (; 26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936) was an English classical scholar and poet. After an initially poor performance while at university, he took employment as a clerk in London and established his academic reputation by pub ...
, and
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
, and wrote over forty books and thousands of articles. In 1969, he was reputed to own the world's largest collection of books published by Hemingway.
Education
Born in
Paterson, New Jersey, White was trained at the
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UT-Chattanooga, UTC, or Chattanooga) is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is one of four universities and two other affiliated institutions in the ...
(BA, 1933), the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...
(MA, 1937), and the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
(PhD, 1953).
Career
White taught
Journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...
and
American Studies
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory.
Schol ...
at
Wayne State University
Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...
from 1947 to 1980, and set up and chaired the journalism program at
Oakland University. Before retiring in 1981, he also taught in colleges in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, and
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
.
In parallel with his academic career, he held a job as reporter, columnist and editor of more than a dozen daily and weekly newspapers in
Chattanooga,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
and
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
, covering a wide range of topics including sports and auto racing for the Detroit area newspapers. Each year White edited a special Whitman section of the ''
Long Islander'', the newspaper founded by
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...
with whom he shared a newspaperman's concern with the condition of American literature. He was the editor of the ''Walt Whitman Review'' for twenty-six years, and co-editor of the ''Walt Whitman Quarterly Review'' for six years and its editor emeritus from 1989 until his death in 1995. He was also the bibliographer of ''The Hemingway Review'' for seventeen years, from 1970 until the fall of 1988. The lead item in the first issue of ''Hemingway notes'' (spring 1971) was his supplement to Audre Hanneman's ''Ernest Hemingway: A Comprehensive Bibliography'' (1967), to which he contributed a ten-page list of articles published about Hemingway between 1966 and 1970.
In addition to writing thousands of academic articles on many American and British authors, including
John Donne,
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry.
Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...
,
Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced b ...
,
A. E. Houseman and
W. D. Snodgrass, White published over forty books, including ''
By-Line: Ernest Hemingway'' (1967), which was translated into fourteen languages and made the
''New York Times'' best-seller list. In ''Walt Whitman's Journalism'' (1968), he was the first to demonstrate the extent and variety of Whitman's accomplishments in journalism. He returned to Hemingway's journalism by publishing ''
Dateline: Toronto'' (1985), a collection of stories Hemingway wrote for the ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...
'' between 1920 and 1924. In 1969, White was credited with possessing the world's largest collection of published works by Hemingway.
After retiring in 1981, he taught in
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
and in
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, lived briefly in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, and settled for a while near the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
, returning to
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
when his health deteriorated.
Personal life
White married Gertrude Mason (1915–2009) in 1952. They lived in England while he completed doctoral study at the University of London and then settled in
Franklin, Michigan
Franklin is a village in Southfield Township, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 3,150 at the 2010 census. The community is known for large, estate-style homes. The downtown was designated as an historic district, t ...
when he took a position teaching Journalism and American Studies at Wayne State University. They had two sons, Geoffrey and Roger, and three granddaughters.
Awards
He won a
Fulbright of American Literature to
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
in 1963-1964, several
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
fellowships, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1984.
Selected works
* ''
By-Line: Ernest Hemingway'' (1967)
* ''Walt Whitman's Journalism: A bibliography'' (1969)
* ''The Merrill guide to Ernest Hemingway'' (1969)
* ''The Merrill checklist of Ernest Hemingway'' (1970)
* ''Edwin Arlington Robinson: a Supplementary Bibliography'' (1971)
* ''Nathanael West: A comprehensive bibliography'' (1975)
* ''The Bicentennial Walt Whitman : essays from the Long-Islander'' (1976) – edited by William White
* ''The Collected Writings of Walt Whitman: Daybooks and Notebooks'' (1978)
* ''Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass. A Textual Variorum Of The Printed Poems 1870-1891'' (1980) – 3 vol. Edited by Sculley Bradley, Harold W. Blodgett, Arthur Golden, William White
* ''1980, Leaves of grass at 125 : eight essays'' (1980) – edited by William White
* ''
Dateline: Toronto'' (1985)
References
Sources
Books
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Journals, newspapers and magazines
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Websites
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External links
Search entries for "William White"at the Resources page of The Walt Whitman Archive.
Search entries for "William White"at the University of Iowa's Institutional Repository.
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, William (academic)
1910 births
1995 deaths
American literary theorists
Wayne State University faculty
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga alumni
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
Oakland University faculty