T. H. White: Quotes from The Commonplace Book

“We cannot build the future by avenging the past.”

― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

"The Owls Are Not What They Seem"

You will learn that owls are the politest and most courteous, single-hearted and faithful creatures living. You must never be familiar, rude or vulgar with them, or make them to look ridiculous. Their mother is Athene, the goddess of wisdom, and, though they are often ready to play the buffoon for your amusement, such conduct is the prerogative of the truly wise.

— The Sword In The Stone, by T. H. White.

Disney's "The Sword in the Stone" and Stuff

December 25 of this year will see the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Walt Disney's The Sword in the Stone, adapted from T. H. White's original book. This was the last animated feature premiered in Disney's lifetime, and I have always felt that it has never had the popularity that it deserves. The timing of the movie was, perhaps, unfortunate: President John F. Kennedy (who for many people had embodied the spirit of "Camelot" inspired by Lerner and Loewe's play and film adapted from White's Arthurian material) had been assassinated only a month before, and few people were in the mood for light-hearted fun. It has always had a warm spot in the hearts of many Fantasy fans, however, sometimes even more so than Disney's straight-out fairy tale movies: for many it is their first introduction to the genre and to the "Matter of Britain."

Compared to other Disney properties, The Sword in the Stone has had little marketing or off-shoots. A film whose main theme is education ("Knowledge and wisdom are the true power!") and not adventure, and which is firmly set in a past and a tradition, might not have a great deal of room to play around in. The main break-away character was Madam Mim, who as a witch might live for centuries, and whose wacky and unbalanced nature could really stir the pot. She appeared in a few comics as a not-so-wicked villain, sometimes in cahoots with Uncle Scrooge's nemeses, the Beagle Boys. Merlin has turned up here and there, but never as a main character . In the Kingdom Hearts games, he is the trainer in magical practice. As for the Wart, who turns out to be King Arthur, he is absolutely nowhere on the popular culture map. He might have had better luck being a Disney princess.

But back in 1963 (the year that I was born!) there was plenty of advertising and marketing and hope and tie-ins to be found. Here are a few items I have gathered that were scattered around (mostly on eBay). Before there was any VHS or DVD, this was how you remembered movies and brought them home with you. The world was different then, my children.

Leafall

Spring and Fall: To A Young Child

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah, as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, or ghost guessed:
It was the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

--Gerard Manley Hopkins


"[Sir Ector] stood gloomily for a moment, watching his two boys trying to catch the last leaves in the chase. They had not gone out with that intention, and did not really, even in those distant days, believe that every leaf you caught would mean a happy month next year. Only, as the west wind tore the golden rags away, they looked extremely fascinating and were difficult to catch. For the mere sport of catching them, of shouting and laughing and feeling giddy as they looked up, and of darting about to trap the creatures, which were certainly alive in the cunning with which they slipped away, the two boys were prancing about like young fauns in the ruin of the year." --T. H. White, The Sword in the Stone.


"Ai! laurie lantar lassi surinen,
Yeni unotime ve ramar aldaron!"
[Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind,
long years numberless as the wings of trees!]

--J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring.

Perhaps This Is Why

More Fritz Eichenberg, this time from Mistress Masham's Repose, by T. H. White, in which a young girl named Maria finds an island inhabitated by Lilliputions. There is a slight shadow on these scans because the book wouldn't open perfectly flat.

10 Books A Day: #91

The Once And Future King...T. H. White...Berkley

The Book Of Merlyn...T. H. White...Berkley

The Sword In The Stone...T. H. White...Dell

The Elephant And The Kangaroo...T. H. White...Signet

Little, Big...John Crowley...Bantam

Engine Summer...John Crowley...Bantam

Beasts...John Crowley...Bantam

The Deep...John Crowley...Bantam

Dragons!...ed. Jack Dann & Gardner Dozois...Ace

Seaward...Susan Cooper...Collier

Book Count: 1147.

10 Books A Day: #2

The ten books today are not as heterogeneous as yesterday's. They are:

T. H. White: A Biography...Sylvia Townsend Warner...Viking

T. H. White: Letters To A Friend...ed. Francois Gallix...Putnam

England Have My Bones...T. H. White...Putnam

The Maharajah And Other Stories...T. H. White...Putnam

The Sword In The Stone...T. H. White...G.P. Putnam's Sons

The Master...T. H. White...Putnam

The Sword In The Stone...T. H. White...Collins

The Goshawk...T. H. White...New York Review Books

The Age Of Scandal...T. H. White...Putnam

The Book Of Beasts...T. H. White...W. S. Cowell, Ltd.

The Book Of Merlyn...T. H. White...University Of Texas Press

It has been observed that no-one can be quite as English as someone who has not actually been born there. Rudyard Kipling, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien all fall into this category; T. H. White is in this company, having been born in India, raised in England, and lived most of his later life in Ireland and the Isle of Jersey, where he could avoid the income tax. In between he managed to write some books filled with the stoutest kind of "Englishry" that I have ever read, the kind that doesn't turn a blind eye to the defects of the country but loves it in despite of it's foibles.

Reading about his life both in Warner's biography and in his autobiographical works (The Goshawk and England Have My Bones) is a fascinating experience. As he takes various jobs and gets by as best he can while trying to make a living as a writer, he makes do when money is low and spends extravagantly when he is flush. His life is filled with enthusiasms: hunting, fishing, falconry, painting, and flying airplanes are all hobbies he must indulge in, and he applies himself to them with a passion, like Mr. Toad. And, like Toad, when he has had his fill, he as full-throttledly goes after the next mania. A homosexual in a time that was most uncongenial to that leaning, his main emotional relationship was with his dogs, especially his Irish setter Brownie, who was his companion throughout his stay in Ireland, when he was writing most of The Once And Future King. The letters he wrote to his best friend and teacher L. J. Potts when Brownie died are heart wrenching.

White only achieved financial stability near the end of his life, with the success of The Once and Future King and the play based on it, Camelot. He raged when Walt Disney stole Julie Andrews away from the production to do Mary Poppins. He died on a ship outside Greece in 1964, homeward bound after a tour to America, a pilgrim to the last. His tombstone in Athens reads: "T. H. White/ 1906-1964/ Author/ Who/ From A Troubled Heart/ Delighted Others/ Loving And Praising /This Life."