Eliza Orne White
Eliza Orne White (1856-1947) was an American author known for her children's literature and adult novels. Born in Keene, New Hampshire, she was the daughter of a Unitarian minister and a portrait artist’s daughter. White began writing fiction at a young age, drawing inspiration from her idyllic childhood experiences in rural New Hampshire. After attending Miss Hall's School for Girls, she traveled through Europe with her family, enriching her worldview.
White published her first novel, *Miss Brooks*, in 1890, followed by several more adult novels and over thirty children's books, focusing primarily on young girls. Her writing is characterized by thin, episodic plots often inspired by her family life. Despite facing significant health challenges later in life, including blindness and deafness, she continued to produce literary work until her death. While her books have largely faded from contemporary recognition, they reflect the tastes and humor of her time. White remains a notable figure in early American children's literature, recognized for her clarity and simplicity in storytelling.
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Eliza Orne White
Author
- Born: August 2, 1856
- Birthplace: Keene, New Hampshire
- Died: January 23, 1947
- Place of death: Brookline, Massachusetts
Biography
Eliza Orne White was born in Keene, New Hampshire, on August 2, 1856, the first of two children of William Orne White, a Harvard University-educated Unitarian minister, and Margaret Eliot Harding, the daughter of portrait artist Chester Harding. Her brother, William Orne White Jr., died in infancy in 1859. The family grew with the addition of an adopted baby sister, Rose, who was nine years younger than White.
White’s grandparents and parents were inveterate diarists and letter writers. White began writing fiction before she was eleven. She spent her formative years in rural New Hampshire, attending schools in Keene. During this period, she absorbed the “charm and simplicity of the life in Keene,” memories of which she would later draw upon for many of her children’s books. Her childhood years were nearly idyllic, but during her senior year of high school, she survived typhoid fever. In 1872, she boarded at Miss Hall’s School for Girls in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
In October, 1876, her father was granted a sabbatical and took his family to Europe for one year. After White and her family toured England, France, Italy, and Switzerland, they returned to New Hampshire, where White continued to live with her parents until 1878, when her father retired from his pastorate and moved his family to Massachusetts. In 1881, her father bought a house at 222 High Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, where White would spend the rest of her life.
In 1890, White published her first novel, Miss Brooks, an adult romance. Her second adult novel, Winterborough, followed in 1892. Her first children’s book, When Molly Was Six, was published in 1894. She continued to write throughout the rest of her life and eventually produced more than thirty children’s titles. She wrote her books primarily for young girls. Their plots are thin, episodic, and often rooted in events in her parents’ lives. For example, A Little Girl of Long Ago is based on her mother’s stories about her life as the child of a famous portrait painter.
Although blind and nearly deaf in the last thirty years of her life, White continued to write and publish. Her books garnered favorable notices in The New York Times, and she published short stories and excerpts from her novels in The Atlantic Monthly, St. Nicholas, Horn Book, and various newspapers. She also edited anthologies of her parents’ writings and wrote brief biographies of them.
After the death of her parents, White, who never married, lived with her housekeeper, Elizabeth Dundass, for fifty years until Dundass’s death in 1938. White died at her Brookline, Massachusetts, home on January 23, 1947. She is buried alongside her parents and Dundass in the family plot in Walnut Hills Cemetery.
White’s books are now largely forgotten, but her works provide a glimpse into the simple tastes and genial humor of the children’s books of her era. The distinguished novelist and editor William Dean Howells said of White, “She has at once placed herself with the few who can see clearly and record simply. That is, with the artists.”