Joseph Blanco White

Joseph Blanco White (1775-1841), from The Life of the Rev. Joseph Blanco White, 1845. Courtesy Internet Archive.

Joseph Blanco White (11 July 1775 - 20 May 1841), was a Spanish-born English poet and theologian.

Life

Overview

White was the son of a merchant, an Irish Roman Catholic resident at Seville, where he was born. He became a priest, but lost his religious faith and came to England, where he conducted a Spanish newspaper having for its main object the fanning of the flame of Spanish patriotism against the French invasion, which was subsidized by the English Government. He again embraced Christianity, and entered the Church of England, but latterly became a Unitarian. He wrote, among other works, Internal Evidences against Catholicism (1825), and Second Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion, in answer to T. Moore's work, Travels, etc. His most permanent contribution to literature, however, is his single sonnet on "Night", which Coleridge considered "the finest and most grandly conceived" in our language.

Youth and education

White was born at Seville on the 11th of July 1775. Born José María Blanco Crespo, of Irish ancestry, he was the son of the British vice-consul, Guillermo Blanco (alias White), an English merchant who had established himself in Seville during the reign of Fernando VI, and María Gertrudis Crespo y Neve.

White was educated for the Roman Catholic priesthood.

Career

After his ordination in 1800, religious doubts led him to escape from Spain to England (1810). There he ultimately entered the Anglican Church, having studied theology at Oxford and made the friendship of Thomas Arnold, John Henry Newman, and Richard Whately.

He became a tutor in Whately's family when Whately became the archbishop of Dublin in 1831. While in this position White embraced Unitarian views and he found an asylum with the Unitarians of Liverpool, where he died on 20 May 1841.

White edited El Espanol, a monthly Spanish magazine in London, from 1810 to 1814.

Writing

His principal writings are Doblado's Letters from Spain (1822); Evidence against Catholicism (1825); Second Travels of an Irish Centkvtan in Search of a Religion (2 volumess, 1834); Observations on Heresy and Orthodoxy (1835). They all show literary ability, and were extensively read in their day. He also translated Paley's Evidences and the Book of Common Prayer into Spanish.

White wrote little verse, and, with the exception of a single sonnet, none that calls for remark. He is best remembered, however, for that sonnet, "Night and Death" ("Mysterious Night! when our first parent knew"), which was dedicated to Samuel Taylor Coleridge on its appearance in the Bijou for 1828 and has since found its way into several anthologies. 3 versions are given in the Academy of September 12, 1891. Coleridge characterized this poem as “the finest and most greatly conceived sonnet in our language”; and Leigh Hunt declared that for thought it “stands supreme perhaps above all in any language, nor can we ponder it too deeply or with too hopeful a reverence.” As Mr. Sharp pointed out in his “Sonnets of the Century,” quite a Bianco-White literature has grown up round this sonnet, further particulars concerning which may be found in Main’s Treasury of English Sonnets.

Recognition

White received a civil list pension of £250.

Publications

Novel

• Vargas: A tale of Spain. (3 volumes), London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1822. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III.

Non-fiction

• Letters from Spain (as "Don Leucadio Doblado"). London: Henry Colburn, 1822.
• Practical and internal evidence against Catholicism : with occasional strictures on Mr. Butler's Book of the Roman Catholic church ; in six letters, addressed to the impartial among the Roman Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland.London: John Murray, 1826 [1825]
• The Poor Man's Preservative Against Popery. London: C. & J. Rivington, 1826.
• Second Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion. (2 volumes), London: Richard Milliken, 1834. Volume I, Volume II.
• Observations on Heresy and Orthodoxy. London: J. Mardon, 1835.
• Life of the Rev. Joseph Blanco White, written by himself, with portions of his correspondence (edited by John Hamilton Thom). (3 volumes), London: John Chapman, 1845. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III.

See also

• List of British poets

References

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "White, Joseph Blanco". Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 600. . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 18, 2018.
• Martin Murphy, Blanco White: Self-banished Spaniard,. New Haven, CT: Yale, 1989.

External links

Poems

• White, Joseph Blanco (1775-1841) at Representative Poetry Online
• Joseph Blanco White (1775-1841) at Sonnet Central
• Joseph Blanco White at PoemHunter (1 poem)

Books

• Joseph Blanco White at Amazon.com

About

• Joseph Blanco White at Encyclopædia Britannica
• Critical and Biographical Essay by Albert Miles
• White, Joseph Blanco in the Dictionary of National Biography

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Original article is at Joseph Blanco White