Review of William Lindsay White, 1900-1973: In the Shadow of His Father by E. Jay Jernigan

Authors

Joel Mathis, The Emporia Gazette

Date of this Version

1999

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly 19:4 (Fall 1999). Copyright © 1999 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Abstract

E. Jay Jernigan's biography of Bill White results from deep research through personal family correspondence and unindexed Gazette files, as well as the libraries of several Kansas universities. Jernigan uses this research to paint a multifaceted portrait of Bill White, whose Eastern sensibilities made his fellow Emporians regard him as an elitist, yet whose capabilities, Jernigan says, often exceeded those of his more famous father. The end result is a fascinating biography of a man who never entirely escaped his father's shadow-but made every effort to cast one of his own.