Terence Hanbury White (1906 - 1964)

Terence Hanbury "Tim" White is born 29 May 1906 in Bombay, India.^[1] He is a son of Garrick Hanbury White and Constance Edith Southcote Aston.^[1] Tim is baptized 25 Jun 1906 in Malabar Hill, Bombay, India.^[1]

White goes to Cheltenham College in Gloucestershire, a public school, and Queens' College, Cambridge. White writes a thesis on Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and graduates in 1928 with a first-class degree in English.

White then teaches at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire for four years. In 1936 he publishes England Have My Bones, a well-received memoir about a year spent in England. The same year, he leaves Stowe School and lives in a workman's cottage nearby, where he writes and engages in falconry, hunting, and fishing. White also becomes interested in aviation.

White's novel Earth Stopped (1934) and its sequel Gone to Ground (1935)

The novel, which White describes as "a preface to Malory", is titled The Sword in the Stone. Published in 1938. The Sword in the Stone is well-received and is a Book of the Month Club selection in 1939.

In February 1939, White moves to Doolistown in County Meath, Ireland, where he lives out the Second World War as a de facto conscientious objector. In Ireland, he writes most of what would later become The Once and Future King; two sequels to The Sword in the Stone were published during this time: The Witch in the Wood (later cut and rewritten as The Queen of Air and Darkness) in 1939, and The Ill-Made Knight in 1940. The version of The Sword in the Stone includes in The Once and Future King differs in several respects from the earlier version.

In 1946, White settles in Alderney, the third-largest Channel Island, where he lives for the rest of his life. The same year, White publishes Mistress Masham's Repose.

In 1947, he publishes The Elephant and the Kangaroo.

In the early 1950s, White publishes two non-fiction books. The Age of Scandal (1950) and The Goshawk (1951). In 1954, White translates and edited The Book of Beasts, an English translation of a medieval bestiary, originally written in Latin.

In 1958, White completes the fourth book of The Once and Future King sequence, The Candle in the Wind, which is first published with the other three parts and has never been published separately. White lives to see his work adapted as the Broadway musical Camelot (1960) and the animated film The Sword in the Stone (1963), both based on The Once and Future King.

White dies 17 January 1964 aboard ship in Piraeus, Athens, Greece, en route to Alderney from a lecture tour in the United States from heart failure.^[2] He is buried in Athens First Cemetery in Athens, Regional unit of Athens, Attica, Greece.^[3]

In 1977 The Book of Merlyn, a conclusion to The Once and Future King, is published posthumously.

Bibliography

• Loved Helen (1929)
• The Green Bay Tree (1929)
• Dead Mr. Nixon (1931) (with R. McNair Scott)
• First Lesson (1932) (as James Aston)
• They Winter Abroad (1932) (as James Aston)
• Darkness at Pemberley (1932)
• Farewell Victoria (1933)
• Earth Stopped (1934)
• Gone to Ground (1935)
• England Have My Bones (1936)
• Burke's Steerage (1938)
• The Once and Future King
• The Sword in the Stone (1938)
• The Queen of Air and Darkness (original version 1939, as The Witch in the Wood)
• The Ill-Made Knight (1940)
• The Candle in the Wind (1958)
• Mistress Masham's Repose (1946)
• The Elephant and the Kangaroo (1947)
• The Age of Scandal (1950)
• The Goshawk (1951)
• The Scandalmonger (1952)
• The Book of Beasts (translator, 1954)
• The Master (1957)
• The Godstone and the Blackymor (1959)
• America at Last (1965)
• The Book of Merlyn (1977)
• A Joy Proposed (1980)
• The Maharajah and Other Stories (edited by Kurth Sprague) (1981)
• Letters to a Friend (1984)

Received a "Retro-Hugo" for his Arthurian novel "The Sword in the Stone", which was published in 1938-1939. The Hugo Awards were not started until 1953, so the award was not presented until 2014.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} India Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947 Terence Hanbury White, 29 May 1906; Malabar Hill, Bombay, India.
2. ↑ GRO Consular Death Indices (1849 to 1965), Volume 58, Page 191
3. ↑ Find A Grave, memorial page for Terence Hanbury “T.H.” White (29 May 1906–17 Jan 1964), Find a Grave Memorial no. 7471221, citing Athens First Cemetery, Athens, Regional unit of Athens, Attica, Greece.

See also:

• T H White on Wikipedia

• Wikidata: Item Q453410

• http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1939-retro-hugo-awards/