| Description | Manuscript notebooks compiled by Henry Arthur Smith, during his research into William Hale White (1831-1913), novelist (under the pseudonym of Mark Rutherford), philosophical writer, literary critic and civil servant. Also includes correspondence between Henry Arthur Smith and members of William Hale White's family, concerning his research ['The Life and Thought of William Hale White', by Henry Arthur Smith, Thesis, Ph.D., Department of Theology, University of Birmingham, 1939] and miscellaneous papers consisting of copies of photographs of Henry Arthur Smith and memoranda written by members of staff in the English department at the University of Birmingham concerning the content and possible transfer of Smith's papers to the university archives, 1969 |
| Administrative History | Henry Arthur Smith (b 10 May 1914) was educated at King George V School, Southport and at the University of Birmingham. He obtained a BA in English in 1936 and his PhD in English was conferred in 1939, the title of his thesis being 'The Life and Thought of William Hale White. He was appointed as a temporary part time lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Birmingham in 1939, becoming full time in 1944. He remained in this post until his death on 12 July 1969.
Source: Archives of the University of Birmingham
William Hale White, born, Bedford, 22 Dec 1831. Educated at Bedford Modern School; entered Countess of Huntingdon's college at Cheshunt, with a view to becoming an independent minister; New College, St. John's Wood, from which he was expelled for unorthodox views concerning the Biblical canon; occasionally preached at Unitarian chapels at Ditchling and elsewhere in London; early 1850s, engaged with John Chapman, publisher and editor of the 'Westminster Review'; entered Civil Service in 1854 as a clerk in the office of the Registrar-General, Somerset House; transferred 1858 to the Admiralty; 1879 became Assistant Director of Contracts. Married twice, 1856 to Harriet (died 1891), with whom he had five sons, the eldest of whom was Sir William Hale White, physician, and one daughter; secondly in 1911, to Dorothy Vernon. Died, Groombridge, Kent, 14 March 1913. Published works included novels, 'The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford' (1881), 'Mark Rutherford's Deliverance'(1885), (for these works he invented a posthumous editor, Reuben Shapcott), 'The Revolution in Tanner's Lane' (1887), 'Miriam's Schooling, and Other Papers' (1890), 'Catherine Furze' (1893), 'Clara Hopgood' (1896), 'Pages from a Journal, with Other Papers' (1900), 'More Pages from a Journal' (1910), 'Last Pages from a Journal' (1915), criticism and biography, 'A Description of the Wordsworth and Coleridge MSS. in the possession of Mr T. Norton' (1897), 'Examination of the Charge of Apostacy against Wordsworth' (1898), 'John Bunyan' (1905), and under his own name, translations of Spinoza's 'Ethic' (1883) and 'Emendation of the Intellect' (1895).
[Dictionary of National Biography, 1912-1921, Oxford University Press, 1927] |