Although fitted with glasses eventually, White usually read without them, preferring (according to his contemporaries) to hold the books close to his face.

[5]: 106 White received early education in the Little Red School House of Northford, Connecticut, at home, and at Canandaigua Academy.

[7] He later attended Central High School in Cleveland and Western Reserve College in Hudson, Ohio, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

[5]: 107  Two of White's favorite college professors were Nathan Perkins Seymour (classics) and Charles Augustus Young (mathematics and science).

[5]: 105  White loved romantic novels and stories of the Wild West, in which reading was his primary relaxation.

It was that same year in 1913 the Cleveland Public Library moved to the Kinney-Levan building on upper Euclid Avenue.

This warehouse-looking building provided William H. Brett with space to open White's collection to the public.

"Over a period of some fifty years he conducted a determined quest, throughout the world, for desirable additions to his library," the chess master and author Al Horowitz wrote in 1969.

Thus, when Brett asked for advice on library financial assistance, White agreed to help out by purchasing books out of his own pocket.

[4]: page42 White owned two personal copies of Das erste Jartausend der Schachlitteratur (850-1880) zusammengestellt (The First Thousand Years of Chess Literature (850-1880) Compiled) by Antonius van der Linde and turned one into a personal inventory of his collection of books.

In 1969, an exhibit titled: "The Remarkable Mr. White," included medieval manuscripts, 16th century chivalry romances, treatises on astrology and witchcraft, books of proverbs and folklore, early dictionaries and grammars in some 7,000 languages represented in the collection and personal diaries.

[7] The library has since split the collection into three: Mr. White left Cleveland for a fishing trip at his favorite mountain resort in Jackson Lake, Wyoming with his friend and former law associate T.A.

[9] The funeral service was held at the First Unitarian Church on Euclid Avenue and East 82nd Street, with the Reverend Dilworth Lupton conducting.