John White's father, John Thomas White Snr (q.v.), was a journalist with the Melbourne Herald and a foundation member of the Australian Journalists' Association in 1910. He had been in the audience who heard Mark Twain's address to journalists at a Melbourne dinner in 1895.
White Jnr began working in a shipping company, the Melbourne Steamship Company, in 1929 and stayed in that industry foor the rest of his working life. His writing began with stories, essays, poetry and articles for Workers' Educational Association classes in the early 1930s. In 1937 he joined the Victorian Writers' League, which had its inaugural meeting on 8 March 1935. He enjoyed longterm friendships with Alan Marshall and Bill Wannan (qq.v.) and had also associated with Stephen Murray-Smith (q.v.). During the Second World War White had a few pieces published in the army education journal, SALT. He has had a lifelong interest in singing and book collecting. The Footscray Institute of Technology (now the Footscray campus, Victoria University of Technology) purchased most of White's library in 1988.
