| 1993 10 Apr |
The passing of Roger White, writer, editor and "poet laureate" of the Bahá'í community, in Richmond, British Columbia (b. in Toronto on 2 June 1929).
Roger served at the World Centre for some twenty years as a secretary and as manager of the publishing department when many important new volumes were published. Under the supervision of the Universal House of Justice, he was responsible for compiling and publishing volumes XIV to XIX of The Bahá'í World, as well as editing the invaluable compendium of volumes I to XII, published in 1981.
He published, at his own expense, a book of poetry called Summer Window for which he did the drawing on the front cover.
Another Song, Another Season (1979), The Witness of Pebbles (1981) and a tender and eloquent novel which presented a semi-fictionalized account of the early days of the Bahá'í Faith in Paris, A Sudden Music, was also published by George Ronald in 1983.
This was followed by a biographical tribute to the poet Emily Dickinson in the form of more than 100 poems: One Bird, One Cage, One Flight (Naturegraph, 1983).
A short, historical account of the martyrdom of 'Alí-Asghár of Yazd entitled The Shell and the Pearl was published by George Ronald in 1984.
Occasions of Grace (George Ronald, 1992) was published after he retired from service in Haifa in 1991 following a major heart surgery.
He returned to Canada and was diagnosed with terminal cancer shortly after.
His last two collected works of poetry were Notes Postmarked the Mountain of God (New Leaf, 1992) and The Language of There (New Leaf, 1992).
He also completed the text for Raghu Rai's photographic celebration of the Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi, Forever in Bloom. [Bahá'í Studies Review, Vol7, 1997]
See Bahá'í World 1994-95 pg249 for an article by Anne Boyles entitled "The Language of the Heart: Arts in the Bahá'í World Community" for mention of Roger White.
See The Journal of Bahá'í Studies Vol. 26 no 1-2, 2016 p91 "Reflections on the Art of My Poetry" by John Hatcher. It is based on a telephone interview with him shortly before his passing.
For Roger White's obituary see BW92-93p276. |
Roger White; In Memoriam; Richmond, BC |
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Canada