During his lifetime, he became associated in one way or another with many prominent Americans, including Henry C. Wallace, Red Cross founder Clara Barton, Chicago socialite Mrs. Potter Palmer', Ernest Hemingway, publisher George Haven Putnam, and numerous leading journalists across the United States.
[1][2] His father was a community leader and excelled in industry as senior partner in White, Munger, & Company, a woolen manufacturing enterprise.
He did not finish a degree (and perhaps did not intend to do so) but left the college when he took a job as City Editor for the Decatur (IL) Morning Review in 1888.
The year after their marriage, while Trumbull was reporting for the Chicago Times, they went on a canoeing expedition in southwest Ontario in Canada along the U. S. border.
[7] Also, in the 1890s while he was working with the various Chicago papers, White was watching the turmoil in the Far East and the outbreak of war between China and Japan in 1894 which ended in a stunning Japanese victory.
He felt the importance of writing this for the American reading public was that “it is necessary to say no more than that the conflict involves directly nations whose total population includes more than one-fourth of the human race, as well as the commercial and other interests of all the European and American nations.” [8][2] More than a year before the Spanish-American War broke out, White was sent as a special correspondent to cover events during the growing crisis between the United States and Spain over events in Cuba.
After the war began, White was placed in charge of a dispatch boat for the Record which in July, 1898 was running between Santiago de Cuba and Kingston, Jamaica.
Under his editorship, the magazine published short stories but not serials, and included a section on photographic art devoted to popular actresses.
By the end of the second year the magazine was producing a profit with a circulation of some 300,000 subscribers with sales in New York exceeding those in Chicago.
White kept a very low profile with Adventure, his name never appeared in the magazine, he wrote no editorials or letter columns, and he left either late in 1911 or early in 1912.
During White's tenure, Everybody's published views on the course of World War I by H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, and Gilbert K. Chesterton.
White had taught journalism short courses there as early as 1895 and had become editor of The Bay View Magazine.
[16][17] Many prominent Americans were known to vacation or speak at Bay View, such as Vice-President Thomas R. Marshall, former Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks, Chicago social worker Jane Addams, perennial presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, African-American educator Booker T. Washington, and the disability rights leader Helen Keller.
[23] It is not known what transpired at the meeting, but several Hemingway biographers have noted how he took White's advice in his future publications, especially in The Sun Also Rises.
By early 1918, White began hearing rumors of mistreatment of black soldiers by the Germans and by American military practices in the field that caused danger to the troops.
He wrote to George Creel, chairman of the Committee on Public Information that had been created shortly after the American declaration of war on April 2, 1917.
Considering the time period in which these events were occurring, Emmet J. Scott, former personal secretary to Booker T. Washington, stated that “wideawake patriotism and deep interest in the welfare of the Negro people are numbered among his many commendable virtues.”[29] White was a prolific author of books as well as a writer and editor of newspapers and magazines.
Among the early books he published included The Wizard of Wall Street and His Wealth, or The Life and Deeds of Jay Gould, (1892), a critical biography of the business tycoon and his methods of creating vast wealth; Chicago's World Fair Columbian Exposition 1893 (1893) with co-author William Inglehart and an introduction by Bertha Matilde Honorè Palmer, wife of Chicago businessman Potter Palmer, and which was highly illustrated.
Also in the early 1900s, Trumbull White traveled considerably around the world and published several highly illustrated books.
He visited the Hawaiian Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia, then proceeded to the Asian continent and toured through India and Egypt.
After returning to America he then went on tour through China, Japan, Mongolia, Siberia, South Africa, and the West Indies.
Illustrations in Pacific Tours and Around the World include photos of people in these countries in everyday activities, such as riding in a bullock cart in India and a trolley in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), a scene in an Arabian cafe, a portrait of a village chief in Palestine, pictures of a Japanese orchestra, a Muslim at prayer, dancing dervishes, and Spanish Fandango dancers.
[35][36] White's final years were spent writing and in leisure time at Bay View near Petoskey, Michigan.
The number and description of articles Trumbull White published in various magazines throughout his career is vast and unknown.