Origins & Early Life

Terence Hanbury "Tim" White (29 May 1906 – 17 January 1964) was an English writer. He is best known for his Arthurian novels, which were published together in 1958 as The Once and Future King. One of his best known is the first of the series, The Sword in the Stone, which was published as a stand-alone book in 1938. White was born in Bombay, British India, to Garrick Hanbury White, a superintendent in the Indian police, and Constance Edith Southcote Aston.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

His parents moved with him to England in 1911. White had a troubled childhood, with an alcoholic father and an emotionally cold mother, and his parents separated when he was 14. White went to Cheltenham College in Gloucestershire, a public school, and Queens' College, Cambridge, where he was tutored by the scholar and occasional author L. J. Potts, who became a lifelong friend and correspondent.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

White later referred to him as "the great literary influence in my life." While at Queens' College, White wrote a thesis on Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and graduated in 1928 with a first-class degree in English. White then taught at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire for four years. In 1936...

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