Autograph letter, signed to "Dear Mr. Whittington by [WHITE William Allen] . WHITE Sallie L - 1946

Emporia, Kansas: May, 1946. black ink on note paper lettered in red. Envelope a tad browned, else fine. The carbon copy letter browned with celoo tape at top. Approximately 6.5 x 5.25 inches. With carbon copy typed letter from Mr. Eugene Whittington to William Allen White, asking him to autograph a copy of White's book "The Court of Boyville" published in 1899. The letter also talks about a family relationship to White The letter from Mrs. White talks about her husband's book, and also about family relationships and he says "Some of the happiest hours of my very happy life were spent visiting my grand mother (name) in Bloomfield. ...."William Allen White (February 10, 1868 – January 29, 1944) was a renowned American newspaper editor, politician, author, and leader of the Progressive movement. Between 1896 and his death, White became the iconic spokesman for middle America.He attended the College of Emporia and the University of Kansas, and in 1892 started work at The Kansas City Star as an editorial writer. In 1895 White bought the Emporia Gazette for $3000 from William Yoast Morgan and became its editor. Young White was a political conservative at this stage of his career. In 1896 a White editorial attracted national attention with a scathing attack on William Jennings Bryan, the Democrats, and the Populists titled "What's the Matter With Kansas?" White sharply ridiculed Populist leaders for letting Kansas slip into economic stagnation and not keeping up economically with neighboring states because their anti-business policies frightened away economic capital from the state. White wrote: "There are two ideas of government," said our noble Bryan at Chicago. "There are those who believe that if you legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, this prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find its way up and through every class and rest upon them." That's the stuff! Give the prosperous man the dickens! Legislate the thriftless man into ease, whack the stuffing out of the creditors and tell the debtors who borrowed the money five years ago when money "per capita" was greater than it is now, that the contraction of currency gives him a right to repudiate. The Republicans sent out hundreds of thousands of copies of the editorial in support of William McKinley during the intensely fought United States presidential election, 1896, giving White a national reputation.With his warm sense of humor, articulate editorial pen, and commonsense approach to life, White soon became known throughout the country. His Gazette editorials were widely reprinted; he wrote syndicated stories on politics; and he published many books, including biographies of Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge. "What's the Matter With Kansas?" and "Mary White" — a tribute to his 16-year-old daughter on her death in 1921, portraying her as an anti-flapper — were his best-known writings. Locally he was known as the greatest booster for Emporia.He won a 1923 Pulitzer Prize for his editorial "To an Anxious Friend," published July 27, 1922, after being arrested in a dispute over free speech following objections to the way the state of Kansas handled the men who participated in the Great Railroad Strike of 1922. -wikipedia.