Preferred Citation	T. H. (Terence Hanbury) White Art Collection (AR-00294). Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.
	Acquisition:	Purchases, 1967, 1969
	Processed by:	Ransom Center staff, Jill Morena, 2018

Repository:

Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

	T. H. (Terence Hanbury) White was born in Bombay, India, on May 29, 1906. Partly due to illness and his parents' tumultuous marriage, White traveled to England to live with his maternal grandparents in St. Leonards, East Sussex, in 1911. When his mother and father eventually returned, separately, to India, White stayed on with his grandparents. He began his education at a public school, Cheltenham College, in 1920. His experience there was difficult, but he continued his schooling, and five years later he attended Queens College to receive tutoring and prepare himself for entrance exams. In 1925 he entered Cambridge University, and two years later he left for a sanatorium and a trip to Italy to convalesce after a diagnosis of tuberculosis. He began writing prose and poetry in Italy, and he managed to pass his examinations and graduate four years later in 1929.
	White took on a position teaching literature at Stowe School in 1932 and taught there for four years. During and following this period he took it upon himself to learn hunting, fishing, flying and shooting with intensity and enthusiasm. This transition to a solitary, outdoor life led to his first literary success, England Have My Bones (1936), a compilation of his diaries in these pursuits. White would later publish the account of his attempt to train a hawk during this time, The Goshawk, in 1951.
	For the entirety of his life, White lived a solitary one, largely immersed in hunting, fishing, and studying medieval texts and literature that would be the inspiration for his most well-known and loved works. In 1938 he published The Sword and the Stone to great critical and popular acclaim. A narrative of the young life of Arthur and his instruction by Merlyn, White's inspiration was Sir Thomas Malory's legend of King Arthur. White would live to see the compilation of all his Arthurian stories, The Once and Future King (1959), become the basis for the stage musical Camelot (1960), and for The Sword and the Stone be adapted for an animated Disney feature of the same name (1963). The conclusion to The Once and Future King, The Book of Merlyn, was discovered and published after White's death, in 1977. White also produced a non-fiction translation of a medieval bestiary text held at Cambridge University Library, The Book of Beasts: Being a Translation from a Latin Bestiary of the Twelfth Century Made and Edited by T. H. White, in 1954.
	While White's primary interest was medieval literature and lore, he also produced a sequel to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (Mistress Masham's Repose, 1946), non-fiction studies of 18th century England (The Age of Scandal: An Excursion through a Minor Period, 1950; The Scandalmonger, 1952), a retelling of William Shakespeare's The Tempest (The Master, 1957), and musings on his travels in western Ireland (The Godstone and the Blackymor, 1959).
	He moved to the Channel Islands in 1946 and lived in Alderney until his death, with a succession of two Irish Setters as his only constant companions. In his final years White enjoyed traveling for brief periods, revisiting Italy and lecturing around the United States. En route to Greece aboard the SS Exeter on his return trip home from the United States, White died in his cabin. He was buried in Athens with a stone bearing the epitaph, "Author Who from a Troubled Heart Delighted Others Loving and Praising This Life".

The collection consists of paintings and drawings by T. H. (Terence Hanbury) White (British, 1906-1964), including landscapes, portraits, caricatures, decorative object designs, still lifes, and contemplations on resurrection and the afterlife. The collection is divided into three series: I. Paintings, 1940s-1950s; II. Drawings, Macbeth the Knife, circa 1960s; and III. Drawings and Sketches, 1930s-1950s. The majority of paintings in Series I are oil on canvas or board, and depict scenes in or around White's home in Alderney, with ranging degrees of abstraction or realism. Notable in this series is a self-portrait, showing White in the process of painting his initials while holding a scepter in his other hand. There is also a portrait of L. J. Potts, White's tutor at Queens College who became a lifelong friend and mentor. Other paintings are still lifes, portraits of women, and imaginings of resurrection, ascension, the afterlife, and fantastical creatures and plant life. Series II includes pen and ink drawings of designs for urns, containers, and buildings for White's unpublished, adapted staging of Shakespeare's Macbeth, entitled, Macbeth the Knife. Charcoal on paper is the dominant medium in Series III, which consists largely of figure studies, portraits, and caricatures.

The titles for works in each series are descriptive titles created by the cataloger and curator. Additional descriptions may follow titles to further elucidate. Exceptions are 69.20.1, 69.20.5, and 69.20.13, which are published titles in Kathleen G. Hjerter's Doubly Gifted: The Author as Visual Artist (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1986). Works with artist's titles are as follows: 75.155.2.1; 75.155.3.1; 75.155.20; 75.155.28; 75.155.34; and 79.341.

Manuscripts and letters by and related to T. H. White can be found in the T. H. (Terence Hanbury) White Collection (MS-4494), and photographs of White or related to his publications are present in the T. H. (Terence Hanbury) White Literary File Photography Collection (PH-02808).

	People
		Potts, L. J. (Leonard James), 1897-1960.
		White, T. H. (Terence Hanbury), 1906-1964.
	Subjects
		Beaches--England.
		Hell--Pictorial works.
		Landscapes--1940-1950.
		Nudes--1940-1960.
		Resurrection.
		Self-portraits--1950-1960.
		Still-life painting--20th century.
		Patterns (Design elements)--1940-1960.
		Portraits--1950-1960.
	Places
		Alderney (Guernsey).
	Document Types
		Chalk drawings.
		Charcoal drawings.
		Ink drawings.
		Oil paintings.
		Pastels (Visual works).
		Sketches.
		Watercolors.