Jimmy Skunk
Grandfather Frog
Happy Jack Squirrel
Peter Rabbit
Reddy Fox
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BIOGRAPHY
Thornton
Waldo Burgess, naturalist and conservationist, loved the
beauty of nature and its living creatures so much that he
wrote about them for 50 years. By the time he retired, he
had written more than 170 books and 15,000 stories for
daily columns in newspapers.
Many of his outdoor observations in nature were used as
plots for his stories. In his first book, Old Mother
West Wind, published in 1910, the reader meets many
of the characters found in later books and stories. These
characters include Peter Rabbit, Jimmy Skunk, Sammy Jay,
Bobby Raccoon, Joe Otter, Grandfather Frog, Billy Mink,
Jerry Muskrat, Spotty the Turtle and of course, Old
Mother West Wind and her Merry Little Breezes.
For the next fifty years, Burgess steadily wrote books
that were published around the world in many languages,
including Swedish, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and
Gaelic. Collaborating with him was his illustrator and
friend, Harrison Cady of New York and Rockport,
Massachusetts. Cady gave us the familiar form of Peter
Rabbit and other animal characters that we recognize
today.
Burgess was also actively involved with conservation
efforts. Some of his projects over his lifetime included:
1."The Green Meadow Club" for land conservation
programs.
2.Help pass laws protecting migrant wildlife.
3."The Bedtime Stories Club" for wildlife
protection programs.
4."Happy Jack Squirrel Saving Club" for War
Savings Stamps & Bonds.
5."The Radio Nature League" broadcast from WBZA
Springfield, MA.
For his efforts, an Honorary Literary Degree was bestowed
upon Burgess in 1938 from Northeastern University. The
Boston Museum of Science awarded him a special gold medal
for "leading children down the path to the wide
wonderful world of the outdoors." He was also
awarded the distinguished Service Medal of the Permanent
Wildlife Protection Fund.
In 1960, Burgess published his last book, Now I
Remember, an autobiography depicting memories of his
early life in Sandwich, as well as his career highlights.
That same year, Burgess at the age of 83, had published
his 15,000th story. From 1912 to 1960, without
interruption, Burgess wrote a syndicated daily newspaper
column titled "Bedtime Stories".
Thornton Waldo Burgess is the son of Caroline F. Haywood
and Thornton W. Burgess Sr. a direct descendent of Thomas
Burgess. (one of the first settlers of Sandwich,
Massachusetts in 1637.) He was born in Sandwich on
January 14, 1874 and died June 5, 1965, at the age of 91.
Burgess was brought up by his mother in Sandwich after
his father died in the year of his birth. They both lived
in humble circumstances with relatives or paying rent. As
a youth he worked year round in order to earn money. Some
of his jobs included tending cows, picking arbutus or
berries, shipping water lilies from local ponds, selling
candy and trapping muskrats. William C. Chipman, one of
his employers, lived on Discovery Hill Road a wildlife
habitat of woodland and wetland. This habitat became the
setting of so many of his stories in which he refers to
Smiling Pool and the Old Briar Patch. Graduating from
Sandwich High School in 1891, Burgess attended a Business
College in Boston from 1892-93. At the age of 17 Burgess
briefly lived in Boston and then moved to Springfield,
Massachusetts. He bought a place in Hampden,
Massachusetts in 1925 and made it his permanent home in
1957. Returning frequently to Sandwich, Burgess claimed
that to be his birth place and spiritual home. After his
death the Massachusetts Audubon Society purchased his
Hampden home and established the Laughing Brook Nature
Center at that location. Many of his childhood
experiences and the people he knew influenced his
interest and concern for wildlife.
The Thornton W. Burgess Society was incorporated in 1976
"to inspire reverence for wildlife and a concern for
the natural environment." It is a continuation of
the influence Burgess had with youth through his
delightful stories. Arabella Burgess's home became the
Burgess Museum on Water Street in Sandwich. Later in 1979, the Green
Briar Jam Kitchen on Discovery Hill Road was purchased
and has become a Nature Center as well. At the Nature
Center, classes and programs are planned which implement
the philosophy of Thornton Waldo Burgess.
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