A Certain Rich Man (1909). By

This work may be safely acclaimed as an American novel which takes front rank among the best fiction not only of modern days but of all times. Amid vivid pictures of the growth of the great Middle West, William Allen White, the distinguished journalist and author of numerous widely known short stories, gives us the absorbing career of a remarkable moneymaker and his associates. The realism of it, the verisimilitude of his men and women, the accuracy of his description of the conditions that surrounded and moulded them, no experienced observer of American life will attempt to deny. Unaffected by any foreign influence, writing in a simple and straightforward fashion of matters of which he is thoroughly familiar, Mr. White has made "A Certain Rich Man" throb with the vital spirit, good and bad, of America. William Allen White (February 10, 1868 - January 29, 1944) was a renowned American newspaper editor, politician, author, and leader of the Progressive movement. Between 1896 and his death, White became the iconic spokesman for middle America. *Early life* Born in Emporia, Kansas, White moved to El Dorado, Kansas, with his parents, Allen and Mary Ann Hatten White, where he spent the majority of his childhood. He loved animals and reading various books.He attended the College of Emporia and the University of Kansas, and in 1892 started work at The Kansas City Star as an editorial writer. *Family* White married Sallie Lindsay in 1893. They had two children, William Lindsay, born in 1900, and Mary Katherine, born in 1904. Mary died in a 1921 horse-riding accident, prompting her father to write a famous eulogy, "Mary White," on August 17, 1921.White visited six of the seven continents at least once in his long life. Due to his fame and success, he received 10 honorary degrees from universities, including one from Harvard. White taught his son William L. the importance of journalism, and after his death, William L. took charge of the Gazette and continued its local success. William L.'s wife, Kathrine, ran it after he died. Their daughter, Barbara, and her husband, David Walker, took it over much as William had earlier, and today the paper remains family-run, currently headed by WAW's great-grandson, Christopher White Walker. White developed a friendship with President Theodore Roosevelt in the 1890s that lasted until Roosevelt's death in 1919. Roosevelt spent several nights at White's Wight and Wight-designed home, Red Rocks, during trips across the United States.White was to say later, "Roosevelt bit me and I went mad."Later, White supported much of the New Deal, but voted against Franklin D. Roosevelt every time.