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Kenneth White
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<h2 id="biography">Biography</h2> <p>Kenneth White was born in the <a href="/facts/Gorbals/gn8X05Kp">Gorbals</a> area of <a href="/facts/Glasgow/hHUX44Ra">Glasgow</a>, Scotland, but he spent his childhood and adolescence at <a href="/facts/Fairlie,_North_Ayrshire/kUBtnmqV">Fairlie</a> near <a href="/facts/Largs/Gg5UICeb">Largs</a> on the <a href="/facts/Ayrshire/7Itw1PzW">Ayrshire</a> coast, where his father worked as a railway signalman.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> In Fairlie, he encountered <a href="/facts/Dugald_Semple/L8LP9Bgl">Dugald Semple</a>, borrowing books from him and becoming influenced by his philosophy of simple living.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> </p><p>White obtained a <a href="/facts/British_undergraduate_degree_classification/fPs3fpsu">double first</a> in French and German from the <a href="/facts/University_of_Glasgow/D0XAYMtq">University of Glasgow</a>. From 1959 until 1963, White studied at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Paris/yXAx8nlG">University of Paris</a>, where he obtained a state doctorate. White purchased "Gourgounel", an old farm in the <a href="/facts/Ard%C3%A8che/j4REyosB">Ardèche</a> region of France, where he could spend the summers and autumns studying and working on what would become <i>Letters from Gourgounel</i>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> </p><p>In 1963, White returned to the University of Glasgow, where he lectured in French literature until 1967. Then, disillusioned by the contemporary British literary and poetry scene, White resigned from the University and moved to the city of <a href="/facts/Pau,_Pyr%C3%A9n%C3%A9es-Atlantiques/IUFlWlj3">Pau</a>, near the <a href="/facts/Pyrenees/YJ38kInj">Pyrenees</a>, in south-west France, where he lectured in English at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Bordeaux/xDuz6GjJ">University of Bordeaux</a>. White was expelled from the University after his involvement in the student protests of <a href="/facts/May_1968_in_France/1NIhxF88">May 1968</a>. After leaving the University of Bordeaux, White remained at Pau and lectured at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Paris_VII/nWa0Y72H">University of Paris VII</a> from 1969 until 1983, when he left the Pyrenees for the north coast of <a href="/facts/Brittany/XvquwmIg">Brittany</a>, and a new position as the chair of 20th-century poetics at <a href="/facts/University_of_Paris/yXAx8nlG">Paris-Sorbonne</a>. </p><p>In 1989, White founded the International Institute of <a href="/facts/Geopoetics/IfTAdgwt">Geopoetics</a> to promote further research into the cross-cultural, transdisciplinary field of study which he had been developing during the previous decade. </p><p>In October 2005, Kenneth White delivered a series of three lectures on the Geopoetics project in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The first, 'North Atlantic Investigations', was delivered at <a href="/facts/Ullapool/sDyln7Qs">Ullapool</a>, the second, 'Return to the Territory', was delivered at <a href="/facts/Inverness/H8wk4p7x">Inverness</a>, and the third, 'A Sense of High North', was delivered at <a href="/facts/Kirkwall/4aNzjtsJ">Kirkwall</a>. Transcriptions of the three lectures were published in 2006 as a single volume titled <i>On the Atlantic Edge</i>. </p><p>White held honorary doctorates from the University of Glasgow, the <a href="/facts/University_of_Edinburgh/L69HscH9">University of Edinburgh</a> and the <a href="/facts/Open_University/XtKeHXvB">Open University</a>. He was an honorary member of the <a href="/facts/Royal_Scottish_Academy/T15S0kIj">Royal Scottish Academy</a>, and was recently appointed a visiting professor at Scotland's <a href="/facts/UHI_Millennium_Institute/D5tj89Sd">UHI Millennium Institute</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> </p><p>Kenneth White lived on the north coast of <a href="/facts/Brittany/XvquwmIg">Brittany</a> with his wife Marie-Claude, who is a translator and photographer. He died there on 11 August 2023, at the age of 87.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="bibliography">Bibliography</h2> <h3>Poetry</h3> <ul><li><i>Wild Coal</i>. Paris: Club des Étudiants d’Anglais (Sorbonne). (1963)</li> <li><i>En toute candeur</i>. Paris: Mercure de France. (1964)</li> <li><i>The Cold Wind of Dawn</i>. London: <a href="/facts/Jonathan_Cape/5CxsBR52">Jonathan Cape</a>. (1966)</li> <li><i>The Most Difficult Area</i>. London: Cape Goliard. (1968)</li> <li><i>Scènes d'un monde flottant</i>. Lausanne: Alfred Eibel Editeur. (1976)</li> <li><i>Terre de diamant</i>. Lausanne: Alfred Eibel Editeur. (1977)</li> <li><i>Mahamudra</i>. Paris: Mercure de France. (1979)</li> <li><i>Ode fragmentée à la Bretagne blanche</i>. Bordeaux: Willim Blake & Co. (1980)</li> <li><i>Le Grand Rivage</i>. Paris: Nouveau Commerce. (1980)</li> <li><i>Le dernier voyage de Brandan</i>. Paris: Les Presses d'Aujourd'hui. (1981)</li> <li><i>Atlantica</i>. Paris: Grasset. (1986)</li> <li><i>L'anorak du goéland</i>. Rouen: L’Instant Perpétuel. (1986)</li> <li><i>The Bird Path: Collected Longer Poems</i>. Edinburgh and London: Mainstream. (1989)</li> <li><i>Handbook for the Diamond Country, Collected Shorter Poems 1960–1990</i>. Edinburgh and London: Mainstream. (1990)</li> <li><i>Les Rives du silence</i>. Paris: Mercure de France. (1998)</li> <li><i>Limites et marges</i>. Paris: Mercure de France. (2000)</li> <li><i>Open World: Collected Poems 1960–2000</i>. Edinburgh: Polygon. (2003)</li> <li><i>Le passage extérieur</i>. Paris: Mercure de France. (2005)</li> <li><i>Les archives du littoral</i>. Paris: Mercure de France. (2011)</li></ul> <h3>Prose</h3> <ul><li><i>Letters from Gourgounel</i>. London: Jonathan Cape. (1966)</li> <li><i>Les Limbes Incandescentes</i>. Paris: Denoël. (1976)</li> <li><i>Derives</i>. Paris: Denoël. (1978)</li> <li><i>L'Ecosse</i>. Paris: Flammarion. (1980)</li> <li><i>Le Visage du Vent d'Est</i>. Paris: Les Presses d'Aujourd'hui. (1980)</li> <li><i>La Route Bleue</i>. Paris: Grasset. (1983)</li> <li><i>Travels in the Drifting Dawn</i>. Edinburgh and London: Mainstream. (1989)</li> <li><i>Les Cygnes sauvages</i>. Paris: Grasset. (1990)</li> <li><i>Pilgrim of the Void</i>. Edinburgh and London: Mainstream. (1992)</li> <li><i>House of Tides: Letters from Brittany and Other Lands of the West</i>. Edinburgh: Polygon. (2000)</li> <li><i>Across the Territories</i>. Edinburgh: Polygon. (2004)</li> <li><i>Le Rôdeur des confins</i>. Paris: Albin Michel. (2006)</li> <li><i>La Carte de Guido</i>. Paris: Albin Michel. (2011)</li> <li><i><a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-fundamental-field.html">The Fundamental Field</a></i> (with <a href="/facts/Jeff_Malpas/qlRbDSSU">Jeff Malpas</a>). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2021).</li></ul> <h3>Essays</h3> <ul><li><i>The Tribal Dharma</i>. Carmarthen: Unicorn Bookshop. (1975)</li> <li><i>The Coast opposite Humanity</i>. Carmarthen: Unicorn Bookshop. (1975)</li> <li><i>Approches du Monde Blanc</i>. Paris: Nouveau Commerce. (1976)</li> <li><i>The Life-technique of <a href="/facts/John_Cowper_Powys/L33x0Ern">John Cowper Powys</a></i>. Swansea: Galloping Dog Press. (1978)</li> <li><i>Segalen, Théorie et Pratique du Voyage</i>. Lausanne: Alfred Eibel. (1979)</li> <li><i>La Figure du dehors</i>. Paris: Grasset. (1982)</li> <li><i>Letter from North <a href="/facts/Armorica/GfloNVus">Armorica</a></i>, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), <i><a href="/facts/Cencrastus/5le6hhUD">Cencrastus</a></i> No. 16, Spring 1984, pp. 2 – 4, <a href="/facts/ISSN_(identifier)/DPAflDvU">ISSN</a> <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:0264-0856">0264-0856</a></li> <li><i>Une apocalypse tranquille</i>. Paris: Grasset. (1985)</li> <li><i>Zen and the Birds of <a href="/facts/Saint_Mungo/3cd7ETyC">Kentigern</a></i>, in Parker, Geoff (ed.), <i><a href="/facts/Cencrastus/5le6hhUD">Cencrastus</a></i> No. 23, Summer 1986, pp. 3 – 7, <a href="/facts/ISSN_(identifier)/DPAflDvU">ISSN</a> <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:0264-0856">0264-0856</a></li> <li><i>L'esprit Nomade</i>. Paris: Grasset. (1987)</li> <li><i>Le Poète Cosmographe"</i>. Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux. (1987)</li> <li><i>Le Monde d'<a href="/facts/Antonin_Artaud/LfdE0H7t">Antonin Artaud</a>"</i>. Bruxelles: Complexe. (1989)</li> <li><i>Le Chant du Grand Pays"</i>. Nimes: Terriers (1989)</li> <li><i>Hokusai ou l'Horizon Sensible</i>. Paris: Terrain Vague. (1990)</li> <li><i>Le Plateau de l’albatros: Introduction à la géopoétique</i>. Paris: Grasset. (1994)</li> <li><i>Le Lieu et la Parole</i>. Cleguer: Editions du Scorff. (1997)</li> <li><i>Une Strategie Paradoxale"</i>. Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux. (1998)</li> <li><i>Les Finisterres de l'Esprit</i>. Cleguer: Editions du Scorff. (1998)</li> <li><i>On Scottish Ground</i>. Edinburgh: Polygon. (1998)</li> <li><i>Le Champ du Grand Travail"</i>. Bruxelles: Didier Devillez. (2003)</li> <li><i>The Wanderer and His Charts</i>. Edinburgh: Polygon. (2004)</li> <li><i>L'Ermitage des Brumes</i>. Paris: Dervy. (2005)</li> <li><i>On the Atlantic Edge</i>. Sandstone. (2006)</li> <li><i>Dialogue avec Deleuze</i>. Paris: Isolato. (2007)</li> <li><i>Les Affinités Extremes</i>. Paris: Albin Michel. (2009)</li></ul> <h3>Interviews (Collected)</h3> <p><i>Coast to Coast</i>. Glasgow, Open World and Mythic Horse Press, 1996. </p> <h3>Translations</h3> <ul><li><i>Showing the Way, a Hmong Initiation of the Dead</i>. Bangkok, Pandora, 1983.</li> <li><i>André Breton, Selected Poems</i>. London, Jonathan Cape, 1969</li> <li><i>André Breton, Ode to Charles Fourier</i>. London, Cape Goliard Press, 1969.</li></ul> <h3>Recorded poetry</h3> <ul><li><i>Into the White World</i>. two cassettes of poetry readings, Scotsoun, 13 Ashton Rd, Glasgow G12 8SP, 1992.</li></ul> <h3>Reviews</h3> <ul><li>review of <i><a href="/facts/St_Kilda,_Scotland/NynpnX0l">St. Kilda</a>'s Parliament</i> by <a href="/facts/Douglas_Dunn/t9oQSwo0">Douglas Dunn</a>, in Murray, Glen (ed.), <i><a href="/facts/Cencrastus/5le6hhUD">Cencrastus</a></i> No. 8, Spring 1982, pp. 44 & 45, <a href="/facts/ISSN_(identifier)/DPAflDvU">ISSN</a> <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:0264-0856">0264-0856</a></li></ul> <h2 id="awards">Awards</h2> <ul><li>1983 <a href="/facts/Prix_M%C3%A9dicis/DXvQsYY0">Prix Médicis étranger</a> for <i>La Route bleue</i></li> <li>1985 <a href="/facts/Acad%C3%A9mie_fran%C3%A7aise/Bo9SnIkY">French Academy</a>'s Grand Prix du Rayonnement</li> <li>1987 Prix Alfred de Vigny for <i>Atlantica</i><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a></li></ul> <ul><li>McManus, Tony (2007). <i>The Radical Field: Kenneth White and Geopoetics</i>. Sandstone Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-1-905207-14-5.</li> <li>White, Kenneth (2003). <i>Open World: Collected Poems 1960–2000</i>. Polygon. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 1-904598-01-3.</li> <li>White, Kenneth (1989). <i>Travels in the Drifting Dawn</i>. Mainstream Publishing. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 1-85158-240-1.</li></ul> <h2 id="notes">Notes</h2> <h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2> <ul><li>Bowd, Gavin. <i>The Outsiders: <a href="/facts/Alexander_Trocchi/fVRGcXaj">Alexander Trocchi</a> and Kenneth White</i>. (1998)</li> <li>Bowd, Gavin (editor). <i>Grounding a World: Essays on the Work of Kenneth White</i>. (2005)</li> <li>Mohammed Hashas, <a href="https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-4438-9353-4">Intercultural Geopoetics in Kenneth White's Open World</a> (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017), pp. 170. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-1-4438-9353-4</li> <li><a href="/facts/Tom_Hubbard/e0CvHqVB">Hubbard, Tom</a>, "Wandering Scots: Home and Abroad", in Hubbard, Tom (2022), <i>Invitation to the Voyage: Scotland, Europe and Literature</i>, Rymour, pp. 125–134, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9-781739-596002</li> <li>Bissell, Norman (2024), <i>Living on an Island: Expressing the Earth</i>, Alba Editions, Luing, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780952933786</li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://www.institut-geopoetique.org/en/">The International Institute of Geopoetics</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.geopoetics.org.uk">The Scottish Centre for Geopoetics</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.kennethwhite.org">Les Amis et Lecteurs de Kenneth White</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140517201433/http://kennethwhite.org/">Archived</a> 17 May 2014 at the <a href="/facts/Wayback_Machine/nmQ3a6JC">Wayback Machine</a></li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060211181253/http://www.hi-arts.co.uk/geopoetics_project.html">Kenneth White's three Hi-Arts lectures on Geopoetics</a></li> <li><a href="https://archive.today/20070626035008/http://www.open.ac.uk/graduation2005/pop44296.shtml">Short biography of Kenneth White on the Open University website</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Biography on Les Amis et Lecteurs de Kenneth White website Archived 5 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine <a href="http://www.kennethwhite.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=4" target="_blank">http://www.kennethwhite.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=4</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Bissell, Norman (2024), Living on an Island: Expressing the Earth, Alba Editions, Luing, p. 108, ISBN 9780952933786 <a href="/wiki/Luing" target="_blank">/wiki/Luing</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Biography on Les Amis et Lecteurs de Kenneth White website Archived 5 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine <a href="http://www.kennethwhite.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=4" target="_blank">http://www.kennethwhite.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=4</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Announcement on UHI website[permanent dead link] <a href="http://www.uhi.ac.uk:8081/dev/faculties-subject-networks/leading-writer-joins-uhi" target="_blank">http://www.uhi.ac.uk:8081/dev/faculties-subject-networks/leading-writer-joins-uhi</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"À Trébeurden, Kenneth White, le grand poète écossais, est décédé". Ouest France. 14 August 2023. Retrieved 14 August 2023. <a href="https://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/trebeurden-22560/a-trebeurden-kenneth-white-le-grand-poete-ecossais-est-decede-e99f708e-3a7f-11ee-8474-26257e7765fa" target="_blank">https://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/trebeurden-22560/a-trebeurden-kenneth-white-le-grand-poete-ecossais-est-decede-e99f708e-3a7f-11ee-8474-26257e7765fa</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Travels in the Drifting Dawn Dust-jacket notes. <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>