White, T. H. (1906-1964), was an English author known for his series of four novels that were published in 1958 in a single volume called The Once and Future King. The novels are an ironic and vivid retelling of the legends of King Arthur. The series consists of The Sword in the Stone (1938), The Queen of Air and Darkness (first published in 1939 as The Witch in the Wood), The Ill-Made Knight (1940), and The Candle in the Wind (completed in 1941 and first published in 1958). White wrote a fifth volume in the series called The Book of Merlyn. He completed it in 1941, but it was not published until 1977, after his death.
Terence Hanbury White was born on May 29, 1906, in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. He studied at Cambridge University in England and then taught school from 1930 to 1936. His first writing success was the autobiography England Have My Bones (1936). After completing that book, White devoted himself full-time to writing and doing research for his books.
In addition to his fiction, White wrote two books exploring the social history of England in the 1700’s—The Age of Scandal (1950) and The Scandalmonger (1952). He also wrote a second volume of autobiography, The Godstone and the Blackymor (1959). White died on Jan. 17, 1964.
