Burton, Scotr, 1939-1989.

Walter Scott Burton III was born June 23, 1939 in Greensboro, Alabama to Walter Scott Burton, Jr. and Hortense Mobley Burton. Burton's baby book notes he was born extremely prematurely, at 6 and a half months, and there were "very discouraging prospects for saving his life." His parents separated and Hortense Burton raised her son alone in the town of Eutaw, Alabama. In 1952 or 1953, mother and son moved to Washington, D.C., where Burton's uncle, Radford E. Mobley, was a Washington correspondent for the Knight newspaper chain. Scott entered high school while Hortense Burton worked at various governmental administrative jobs.

In the mid-fifties, Burton studied art with Leon Berkowitz at the Washington Workshop of the Arts, and became close friends with Berkowitz and his wife, Ida Fox. With Berkowitz's encouragement, Burton attended summer sessions at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts in Provincetown, MA, from 1957 until 1959. Burton went on to attend Goddard College of Plainfield, VT, then George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and took classes at Harvard University. Burton finished his undergraduate education at Columbia University in 1962 and achieved his Master of Arts from New York University in 1963; he was committed to staying in New York and fully intending to pursue a career in creative writing.

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