White, Helen C. (1896–1967)

American educator and writer . Born Helen Constance White on November 26, 1896, in New Haven, Connecticut; died on June 7, 1967, in Norwood, Massachusetts; daughter of John White and Mary (King) White; attended Girls' High School in Boston, 1909–13; Radcliffe College, A.B., A.M., 1916; University of Wisconsin, Ph.D., 1924; never married; no children.

Selected works—nonfiction:

The Mysticism of William Blake (1927), English Devotional Literature (Prose) 1600–1640 (1931), The Metaphysical Poets: A Study in Religious Experience (1936), Social Criticism in Popular Religious Literature of the Sixteenth Century (1944), The Tudor Books of Private Devotion (1951), Prayer and Poetry (1960); (novels) A Watch in the Night (1933), Not Built with Hands (1935), To the End of the World (1939), Dust on the King's Highway (1947), The Four Rivers of Paradise (1955), Bird of Fire: A Tale of St. Francis of Assisi (1958).

Born in 1896, Helen C. White was raised until the age of five in New Haven, Connecticut, and then in Roslindale, Massachusetts, in a strong Irish Catholic tradition which remained an influence throughout her life. She attended Girls' High School in Boston where she received both an education in literature and, from sympathetic teachers, a greater understanding of the suffrage movement and Boston's immigrant population. After high school, she enrolled at Radcliffe College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1916. The following year she accepted a teaching position at Smith College, where she remained until being hired as an English instructor at the University of Wisconsin in 1919.

White combined her teaching responsibilities with her own doctoral studies at the university, earning a Ph.D. in 1924 with her dissertation "The Mysticism of William Blake." Published as a book three years later, White's study on Blake demonstrated her interest in the exploration of literature in the context of the social and intellectual traditions in which authors worked, paying particular attention to the impact of religion. In her later scholarly studies, she focused on medieval and Renaissance literature in such works as The Metaphysical Poets: A Study in Religious Experience (1936), Social Criticism in Popular Religious Literature of the Sixteenth Century (1944), which one critic called a work of "impeccable scholarship," and Prayer and Poetry (1960). She was aided in her research by Guggenheim and Huntington Library fellowships. Aside from one year in the early 1940s spent as a visiting professor at Barnard College, White remained at Wisconsin for the rest of her working life, becoming a full professor in 1936—the first woman to achieve such status at the university—and ultimately chair of the English department.

In addition to her academic career, White published a number of novels which also reflected her triad interests in religion, literature, and ideas. Her first, A Watch in the Night (1933), the story of a 13th-century Franciscan monk, was a heavy favorite to win that year's Pulitzer Prize. In the opinion of many critics, she lost to Caroline Miller 's Lamb in His Bosom! only because the prize committee wanted to give the award to a novel with an American setting. Not Built with Hands, published two years later, also featured historical figures, this time Pope Gregory VII and Countess Matilda of Tuscany during the Investiture Conflict, a pivotal moment in Roman Catholic history. Not Built with Hands received generally more favorable reviews than had her first book, although Catholic authorities raised questions about its historical accuracy. Four more novels, including To the End of the World (1939), set during the French Revolution, and Bird of Fire: A Tale of St. Francis of Assisi (1958), adhered to the pattern of portraying characters in a time of pronounced ideological change.

As president of the American Association of University Women during the turbulent years from 1941 to 1947, White emphasized the importance of the role of educated women in achieving peaceful social change while also supporting the war effort. During this same period she served on the national commission of UNESCO and on the boards of the National Conference of Christians and Jews (1940–49) and several Catholic educational foundations. She also aided the careers of fellow scholars and students as an advisor to the Whitney Foundation and as president (in 1963) of the Modern Humanities Research Association. Among the tributes she received were three honorary degrees and the 1942 Laetare Medal from the University of Notre Dame. A self-admitted absentminded professor who was known on campus as "the lady in purple" (she considered it easier to dress all in one color), White retired from the University of Wisconsin in 1965. After suffering from heart disease, she died two years later of a stroke.

sources:

Current Biography 1945. NY: H.W. Wilson, 1945.

Sicherman, Barbara, and Carol Hurd Green, eds. Notable American Women: The Modern Period. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1980.

Linda S. Walton , freelance writer, Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan