White, William Allen (1868–1944)

US journalist and author. In 1895, borrowing $3,000, he bought the small, rural Emporia Gazette, which he published and edited for the rest of his life. He also contributed articles and short stories to many other publications. His 1896 editorial attacking populism was widely circulated by Republicans during that year's presidential campaign and made him famous; he came to be regarded as an independent-minded, commonsensical spokesperson for small-town America. A 1921 essay on his daughter's death in a riding accident became a classic, and a 1922 editorial supporting striking railroad workers won him a Pulitzer Prize.

White was born in Emporia, Kansas. He quit college to become business manager of the El Dorado Republican and, later, an editorial writer for the Kansas City Star. He also wrote novels and biographies of Woodrow Wilson (1921) and Calvin Coolidge (1925, 1938). His autobiography, published in 1946, won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize.