The Journals of Walter White

The journals, published posthumously in 1898, of a self-educated man who worked in the Royal Society's library for forty years.

Walter White (1811–93) was the self-educated son of a cabinet-maker. He spent most of his working life in the Royal Society, where he was Librarian for twenty-three years. His diary, published posthumously in 1898, describes his intellectual journey and the many influential people he met.Although he left school at fourteen to work as an upholsterer and cabinet-maker, Walter White (1811–93) would spend forty years working in the library of the Royal Society. White was mostly self-taught, a voracious reader who also learnt German, French, and Latin, and a diligent attender at lectures and other events offering self-improvement. After a brief emigration to the United States, he returned to Britain in 1839, and was offered a post as 'attendant' in the Royal Society's library in 1844; this led to his cataloguing much of the collection, and in 1861 he was appointed Librarian. He became acquainted with many of the Society's members, including Thomas Carlyle, Charles Darwin, and Lord Tennyson. These journals, published posthumously by his brother in 1898, begin with a brief account of his early years before charting his intellectual progress and career, ending in the year he retired, 1884.