Mark Rutherford (William Hale White)
- LAST MODIFIED: 07 January 2025
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199799558-0221
- LAST MODIFIED: 07 January 2025
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199799558-0221
Introduction
Between 1881 and 1897 five novels were published under the name of Mark Rutherford: The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford (1881) and Mark Rutherford’s Deliverance (1885) were followed by The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane (1887), Miriam’s Schooling (1890), Catharine Furze (1893), and Clara Hopgood (1896). The identity of their writer, William Hale White (b.1831–d.1913), was concealed under this pseudonym (and the device of a fictional editor, “Reuben Shapcott”) for many years, only gradually becoming known in his old age. His readership was small, though some titles have been regularly reprinted. White’s interests and literary output ranged much more widely than his fiction, including journalism, literary criticism, and philosophical translation. He did not begin as a novelist, but had been supplying newspaper columns for many years before the publication of the Autobiography. He continued writing until his death, and important material was published posthumously. Born in Bedford, and growing up within the fellowship of Bunyan Meeting, White is celebrated as a chronicler of English Protestant Dissent. His personal struggle for faith leads him to be associated with the Victorian ‘crisis of faith,’ though he should not be simplistically characterized as a ‘doubter.’ Initially intended for the ministry, but excluded in still imperfectly understood circumstances from his training at New College, London, he went on to a working life spent chiefly as a civil servant, rising to a position of some responsibility at the Admiralty. The early forced change of direction, and the evidence of his long intellectual engagement with questions of belief and life-purpose, form a central theme in assessments of his life and writing, shape the presentation of the key monographs on White, and are reflected in analysis of the novels. Widowed in middle age, a late second marriage to the much younger Dorothy Smith was important for his legacy. She fostered his memory, in 1924 publishing selections from his correspondence (Letters to Three Friends) and her Groombridge Diary of their years together. Later she cooperated enthusiastically with researchers, sharing unpublished papers and her memories. Over time new approaches to the nature of writings with an autobiographical character have offered fresh ways to understand White through his novels. In this context his manuscript memoir posthumously published as The Early Life of Mark Rutherford (1913) has special significance. However, despite its apparent transparency its interpretation is not straightforward.
Pioneering Studies
The earliest studies on Hale White were doctoral works of limited circulation. The German and Swiss theses Klinke 1930 and Buchmann 1950 (apparently completed in 1947), respectively, were printed, according to European university practice, but did not become very widely known. Nonetheless the rigor with which Klinke in particular sought out White’s many shorter writings was useful to later scholars. He also enjoyed access to manuscripts held within the family, and thus helped alert others to the range of sources available. Jacobs 2013 has explored these two authors and their research. Between these works the University of Birmingham thesis Smith 1939 covered much ground but was never published and remains only in typescript (see Brealey 2013). Letters from Smith to his family vividly reveal the pleasure Dorothy White took in encouraging him (Brealey 2014). Succeeding monographs reached a much wider audience, but almost all drew something from these pioneering works, even if not evidenced by direct citation.
Brealey, Michael. “An Early Scholar of William Hale White: Henry Arthur Smith (1914–1969).” Bunyan Studies 17 (2013): 129–139.
Giving background on Smith and considering the range and scope of his massive thesis. Regrettably Smith never published anything from his research.
Brealey, Michael. “‘A Very Exciting Time’: Arthur Smith in Search of William Hale White.” In Newsletter of the Mark Rutherford Society. The Mark Rutherford Resource, 2014.
Revealing how much Dorothy White welcomed and assisted Smith (as she had Klinke before him), compared with the polite but reserved cooperation of White’s children.
Buchmann, Ursula C. William Hale White (Mark Rutherford) and the Problem of Self-Adjustment in a World of Changing Values. Zurich, Switzerland: Juris-Verlag, 1950.
Portrays White as one who painfully shed inherited beliefs to forge a satisfying personal creed maintaining an essential continuity with the past. Hampered by research under wartime conditions, Buchman relied entirely on sources available in Switzerland. The curriculum vitae on the final page indicates the book was completed in 1947, though not printed until 1950.
Jacobs, Nicholas. “Notes on Two European Scholars of William Hale White: Hans Klinke and Ursula Buchmann.” Bunyan Studies 17 (2013): 123–128.
Describes the contact Klinke had with White’s family (especially Dorothy), and the range of sources used, with less description about the intellectual content of his thesis. Notes Buchmann’s philosophical, moral, and theological focus, welcoming her depiction of White as an antidote to Nietzschean thinking. (The reference to ‘St John’s Theological College’ [p. 125] mixes up New College, London with its location in St John’s Wood.)
Klinke, Hans. William Hale White (Mark Rutherford): Versuch einer Biographie mit besonderer Berϋcksichtigung der Einflϋsse von Dichtern, Denkern und Ereignissen mit vielem unveröffentlichten Material dargestellt. Frankfurt: Wilhelm Bohn, 1930.
Klinke’s interest was as much theological as literary, with a focus upon White the person and his sources of inspiration. Biographical and chronological in approach. Published only in German, it has received little critical engagement.
Smith, Henry A. “The Life and Thought of William Hale White.” PhD diss., University of Birmingham, 1939.
Drawing on a very wide range of material, Smith produced a 731-page thesis intended as a comprehensive biography outlining the key influences upon White. Essentially this is the story of a Puritan-formed figure who learns to live well after the underlying theology has crumbled. Available at the University of Birmingham, University of East Anglia, and the British Library.
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