WILLIAM A. WHITE - AUTOGRAPH - HFSID 268919

WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE
Signature of the influential Kansas journalist
Signature: "William A. White", 3¼x1¼ piece of paper. William Allen White (1868-1944) was publisher and chief editorial writer for the Emporia (Kansas) Gazette, which he had purchased for $3,000 in 1895. A small town newspaper might seem an unlikely place from which to become a national opinion leader, but White's eloquence won the attention of national leaders and made him a spokesman for small town America, its fundamental decency and common sense. A prolific writer of fiction and nonfiction, he is chiefly remembered for three editorials, "What's the Matter with Kansas" (1896), an attack on the Populist Party which became a Republican campaign pamphlet that year; "Mary White" (1921), a touching eulogy to his dead daughter; and "To an Anxious Friend" (1923), an essay written while he was temporarily jailed in a free speech dispute. White was a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, temporarily abandoning his Republican allegiance to support TR's third-party candidacy in 1912. Although he never supported Franklin Roosevelt for President, he took the lead - at FDR's urging - in forming the Committee to Defend America by Aid to the Allies, a movement to repudiate isolationism which was often called "the White committee." White won two Pulitzers, one for "To an Anxious Friend," the other -posthumously - for his autobiography. Another White legacy was the Book of the Month Club, which he co-founded. His son William Lindsay White (1900-1973), was also a prominent journalist. Irregular cut edges. Fine condition.