RUTHERFORD, MARK

born Dec. 22, 1831, Bedford, Bedfordshire, Eng. died March 14, 1913, Groombridge, Sussex pseudonym of William Hale White British writer distinguished as a novelist, critic, and religious thinker. Trained for the Congregational ministry (but expelled from his college for his heretical views on the inspiration of the Scriptures), White practiced journalism, then spent the rest of his life in the civil service at the Admiralty. The story of his inner life, however, is largely told in his novels and other writings, published under the name of Mark Rutherford. They include The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford (1881), Mark Rutherford's Deliverance (1885), The Revolution in Tanner's Lane (1887), Miriam's Schooling and Other Papers (1890), Catherine Furze (1893), and Clara Hopgood (1896). White wrote with a quiet intensity. All of his books deal with religious problems or with ordeals of the heart, the intellect, or the conscience.