Burgess, Gelett, 1866-1951

American author and humorist Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) was educated as an engineer and worked briefly for a railroad. He taught topographical drawing between 1891 and 1894 at the University of California, Berkeley until he lost his position after deliberately toppling a campus statue he found to be an eyesore. Burgess founded the Lark, a humour magazine based in San Francisco, published from 1895 to 1897. Burgess created nonsense rhymes and cartoons such as "The Purple Cow: Reflections on a Mythic Beast Who's Quite Remarkable, at Least" (1895) and "Goops" books, humorous instructional books featuring misbehaving creatures with poor manners, whose antics were published in book form between 1900 and 1950 and syndicated in cartoon form in 1925.

From the guide to the Gelett Burgess Letter (MS 179), 1943, (University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries. Special Collections Dept.)

American author and illustrator.

From the description of Gelett Burgess papers, circa 1873-1951. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 26717831

Writer, journalist, illustrator, humorist.

From the description of Gelett Burgess diaries, 1885-1887, 1889, 1891-1895, 1917-1951. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 122593048

Burgess's addressee probably is Benjamin Batchelder Valentine (1843-1926), author and dramatist, and editorial writer and drama critic for the New York Herald (1891-98). The reference to "Miss Jordan" is to Elizabeth Garver Jordan, editor of Harper's Bazaar, 1900-13. Mrs. Lloyd Osbourne appears to be Katherine Osbourne, né Durham, wife of the American author.

From the description of Gelett Burgess letter : TLS : Boston, to Mr. Vallentine, 1900 April 5. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 214949281

Burgess was an American author and editor.

From the description of Letters, 1896-1897. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 80764329

American author.

From the description of Gelett Burgess correspondence, 1931-1933. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 122647685

Author.

From the description of Gelett Burgess poems, 1903. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70983736

Biography

Gelett Burgess was born on Jan. 30, 1866, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1887 as a civil engineer. After serving a number of years as a draughtsman on survey work for the Southern Pacific Railway and as an instructor of topographical engineering at the University of California, he turned to writing.

His literary career began in 1894 in San Francisco as associate editor of The Wave. During the period 1895-97 he not only served as editor of The Lark but, with Porter Garnett, published Le Petit Journal des Refusées and Phyllida. All three were radical departures from conventional magazines and The Lark, with its originality and the famous Purple Cow verse which appeared in its first issue, gained him considerable fame.

With the demise of The Lark in 1897, Burgess left California for New York to pursue a literary career. By the time of his death in 1951, he had written some 30 books, illustrating many of them also, and had been a frequent contributor to magazines with his short stories, poems and essays. Despite the variety and quantity of his literary output, his name was generally associated with humorous, satirical writing. Included among his most famous works are the Burgess Nonsense Book (1901), Are You A Bromide? (1907), The Heart Line (1907), the satirical Maxims of Methuselah (1907), and Maxims of Noah (1913), Two O' Clock Courage (1934), and Look Eleven Years Younger (1937). His manuals of manners in rhyme for children, the Goop books, have become nursery classics.

Although Burgess traveled widely and lived in New York, Boston, San Francisco, London and Paris, in the public mind he has been identified with San Francisco. In 1950 he returned to California and settled in Carmel, and it was there he died in 1951.

From the guide to the Gelett Burgess Papers, [ca. 1873-1951], (The Bancroft Library)