Theodore H. White

Theodore Harold White (born May 6, 1915 in Dorchester, Boston , † May 15, 1986 in New York City ) was an American journalist and China expert. He is best known for a 1946 book on China and his series of books on the US presidential campaign.

White was the son of a Jewish lawyer and attended the Boston Latin School with the degree in 1932. He then studied at Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in Chinese history in 1938 with John K. Fairbank . At Harvard, he wrote for the university magazine Harvard Crimson. After his studies he received a scholarship to travel around the world and started as a reporter from Chongqing , the provisional capital of China during World War II. He was freelance at first, but soon afterwards from Time Magazine editor Henry Lucehired by Time as one of the first foreign correspondents. Luce became his friend too. Luce was born in China and visited White there. White was less happy that his contributions to Time Magazine were heavily edited by the editors (Luce admired Chiang Kai Schek ). White reported for Time from China from 1939 to 1945. After the war he returned to the USA and wrote a book about China with the widow Annalee Jacoby of the China reporter Mel Jacoby. In it, he described the corruption and ineptitude of the national government in China and advised his compatriots to get used to the communist seizure of power. He also published the posthumous records of US General Joseph Stilwell , who was dissatisfied with the Chinese government's reaction to the Japanese occupation during the war. From 1948 to 1950 he was the European correspondent for the Overseas News Agency and 1950 to 1952 for The Reporter . Eventually he became the chronicler of the American presidential election, about which he wrote the Making of the President book series, which covered the elections from 1960 ( John F. Kennedy ) to 1972. For the first volume he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1962 and the book series was a model for many other journalists for their books on the presidential election campaigns. White was well acquainted with the Kennedy family ( Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. was his classmate) and after Kennedy was assassinated, at the request of the widow Jacqueline, he wrote an essay for Life magazine transfiguring the reign as Camelot ( White later admitted that this was not his real opinion and that he wanted to do the grieving widow a favor). It was also the first exclusive interview with Jacqueline Kennedy after the President's assassination. In 1975 his account of the Richard Nixon case appeared in the Watergate scandal . In 1978 his autobiography was published and in 1980 he reported again on the presidential election campaign in a book that also contained a review of past election campaigns. Plans for a coverage (with other TIME reporters) of the 1984 election campaign fell through because White was dissatisfied with the quality of the other contributions.

He also wrote several novels based on his experiences, including The Mountain Road in 1958, about the withdrawal of American soldiers from China after a Japanese offensive provoked by a US bombing. In 1960 the novel was made into a film with James Stewart . Another novel (A view from the fortieth floor) processed his experiences in the publishing house Collier.

Fonts

• with Annalee Jacoby: Thunder Out of China, 1946, Da Capo 1980
• Editor Joseph W. Stillwell: The Stilwell Papers, 1948
• Fire in the Ashes: Europe in Mid Century, 1953
• The Mountain Road, 1958 (novel)
• The View From the Fortieth Floor, 1960 (novel)
• The Making of the President — 1960, 1961
• The Making of the President — 1968
• The Making of the President — 1964
• Caesar at the Rubicon: A Play about Politics, 1968
• The Making of the President — 1972
• Breach of Faith: The Fall of Richard Nixon, Atheneum Publishers, 1975; Dell, 1986
• In Search of History: A Personal Adventure, Harper & Row, 1978 (autobiography)
• America in Search of Itself: The Making of the President, 1956–1980, Harper & Row, 1982
• Theodore H. White at large: the best of his magazine writing, 1939–1986, Pantheon Books, 1992

Web links

• Theodore H. White Papers , Harvard
• Entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica