Kenneth White

Kenneth White (28 April 1936 – 11 August 2023) was a Scottish poet, academic and writer.

Biography

Kenneth White was born in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland, but he spent his childhood and adolescence at Fairlie near Largs on the Ayrshire coast, where his father worked as a railway signalman. In Fairlie, he encountered Dugald Semple, borrowing books from him and becoming influenced by his philosophy of simple living.

White obtained a double first in French and German from the University of Glasgow. From 1959 until 1963, White studied at the University of Paris, where he obtained a state doctorate. White purchased "Gourgounel", an old farm in the Ardèche region of France, where he could spend the summers and autumns studying and working on what would become Letters from Gourgounel.

Kenneth White lived on the north coast of Brittany with his wife Marie-Claude, who is a translator and photographer. He died there on 11 August 2023, at the age of 87.