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Eliza Orne White

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eliza Orne White
BornAugust 2, 1856
DiedJanuary 23, 1947 (1947-01-24) (aged 90)
Burial placeWalnut Hills Cemetery
Occupations
  • Writer
  • novelist
RelativesChester Harding (grandfather)
PennameAlex

Eliza Orne White (August 2, 1856 – January 23, 1947) was an American writer. She published 41 books, including 29 books for children.

Early life and education

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Eliza Orne White was born on August 2, 1856 in Keene, New Hampshire. She was the daughter of William Orne White, a Unitarian minister, and Margaret Eliot Harding, daughter of the portrait painter Chester Harding.[1] At the age of eleven, she went to a reading given by Charles Dickens, who read from The Pickwick Papers and The Death of Little Nell; this event remained in White's memory even years later when Bertha Mahony interviewed White for an article in The Horn Book Magazine.[2][3] She had eye trouble at the age of 14 that caused her to miss a year of school. At 16 she contracted typhoid and stopped attending public school. She later attended Miss Hall's School for Girls in Roxbury, Massachusetts, for a year.[4]

Career

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White started publishing children's stories at the age of 18. She published in The Christian Register and other magazines using the penname "Alex". Her 1888 social comedy, "A Browning Courtship", was published in The Atlantic.[4]

White's first children's book, When Molly Was Six, was published in 1894. In 1890 she published Miss Brooks, her first book that was written for an adult audience.[5]

White wrote 49 books over the course of her career, with 29 books directed to a young audience.[2]

White also edited a book on her father.[6]

Personal life

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For the last thirty years of her life, starting around 1915,[5] White was blind and mostly deaf.[2] She died on January 23, 1947, in Brookline, Massachusetts.[1]

Selected publications

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  • White, Eliza Orne (1935). Ann Frances. Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 11037336.[7]
  • White, Eliza Orne (1934). Lending Mary. Houghton Mifflin Co. OCLC 763899749.[8]
  • White, Eliza Orne (1941). "I, the autobiography of a cat | WorldCat.org". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved March 6, 2023.[9]
  • White, Eliza (1944). When Esther was a Little Girl. by Eliza Orne White: Good (1944) | World of Rare Books.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Eliza Orne White | Artist". www.royalacademy.org.uk. Royal Academy of Arts. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  2. ^ a b c Miller, Bertha Mahony (April 1955). "Eliza Orne White and Her Books for Children". Horn Book: 88–102.
  3. ^ Miller, Bertha Mahony (April 1955). The Horn Book Magazine. Internet Archive. Boston : Horn Book. pp. 89–102.
  4. ^ a b Crabbe, Katharyn F. (1979). American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Ungar. ISBN 9780826406033.
  5. ^ a b College, Radcliffe (1971). Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-62734-5.
  6. ^ William Orne White, a Record of Ninety Years, by Eliza Orne White. November 24, 2009. ISBN 978-1-117-28103-2.
  7. ^ "ANN FRANCES. By Eliza Orne White. 126 pp. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. $1.75". The New York Times. October 20, 1935. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  8. ^ "LENDING MARY. By Eliza Orne White. Illustrations by Grace Paull. 113 pp. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. $1.75". The New York Times. December 23, 1934. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
  9. ^ "Portrait of a Cat; I, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CAT. By Eliza Orne White. Illustrated by Clarke Hutton. 114 pp. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. $2". The New York Times. March 8, 1942. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 6, 2023.