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Thornton Burgess
Thornton Waldo Burgess was an American conservationist and author of children's stories. Burgess loved the beauty of nature and its living creatures so much that he wrote about them for 50 years in books and his newspaper column, Bedtime Stories. He was sometimes known as the Bedtime Story-Man. By the time he retired, he had written more than 170 books and 15,000 stories for the daily newspaper column.
Born January 17, 1874 in Sandwich, Massachusetts, Burgess was the son of Caroline F. Haywood and Thornton W. Burgess, Sr., a direct descendant of Thomas Burgess, one of the first Sandwich settlers in 1637. Thornton, Sr., died the same year his son was born, and the young Thornton, Jr. was brought up by his mother in Sandwich. They lived in humble circumstances. As a youth, he worked tending cows, picking trailing arbutus (mayflowers) 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 many stories in which Burgess refers to Smiling Pool and the Old Briar Patch.
Graduating from Sandwich High School in 1891, Burgess briefly attended a business college in Boston from 1892 to 1893, living in Somerville, Massachusetts, at that time. But he disliked studying business and wanted to be an author. He relocated to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he accepted a job as an editorial assistant at the Phelps Publishing Company. His first stories were written using the pseudonym W. B. Thornton.
He died on June 5, 1965, at the age of 91. His son had died suddenly the year before.
Books by Thornton Burgess
The Adventures of Reddy Fox
These delightful stories created by the writer known famously as the Bedtime Story Man provide hours of endless enjoyment for readers both young and old. His daily newspaper column which he wrote without a break from 1912 through to 1960 featured a h...
The Adventures of Buster Bear
Known to generations of children and their parents as the Bedtime Story Man, Thornton Waldo Burgess wrote nearly two hundred much loved children's books. They were tales that recounted the doings of delightful characters who inhabited the Green Meado...
The Burgess Animal Book for Children
This collection of stories has thrilled generations of readers. Not only a charming introduction to the orders of animals in North America, but also a great study in how they relate to each other.
The Burgess Bird Book for Children
The Burgess Bird Book for Children is a zoology book written in the form of a story featuring Peter Rabbit. Peter learns from his friend Jenny Wren all about the birds of North America, and we meet many of them in the Old Orchard, the Green Meadow, a...
The Adventures of Jimmy Skunk
The Adventures of Jimmy Skunk is another in the long list children's books by the conservationist, Thornton W. Burgess. In this book, Jimmy Skunk has encounters with Reddy Fox, Peter Rabbit, Unc’ Billy Possum and other acquaintances of his in the Gre...
Mrs. Peter Rabbit
A wonderful book in which we meet the lucky little bunny who becomes Mrs. Peter Rabbit! This is one of many delightful animal books written by Thornton W. Burgess. I grew up reading and enjoying these tales of talking animals with fun and varied pers...
Mother West Wind 'Why' Stories
Thornton W. Burgess was a conservationist and prolific author of children's books. His gently humorous stories about the animals of the meadows and woods teach little lessons about getting along with others; they are perfect bedtime stories for small...
Bowser the Hound
Old Man Coyote craftily leads Bowser the hound away from home, and Bowser gets lost. Will Bowser find his way back to Farmer Brown's? Will Reddy Fox finally catch himself a chicken, now that Bowser is no longer guarding the henhouse? This is one of m...
The Boy Scouts on Swift River
When the adventurous Walter Upton and Hal Harrison set out with the young, but expert guide Louis Woodhull on a canoe trip through the wilderness, they were disappointed to take on an excitable Tenderfoot with them as their fourth. The boys had no id...
The Boy Scouts on Lost Trail
Walter Upton again sets out with a group of boys on a great adventure in the North Woods, this time on foot. They've heard of a trail that had been used in the days of the settlers, and are seeking to locate and map it all the way to Canada. Their jo...
The Boy Scouts in a Trapper's Camp
We are brought on a couple of adventures with Walter Upton and his Boy Scout friends, this time in Winter. In The Boy Scouts in a Trappers' Camp, the boys learn a whole new set of skills and have to show their greatest level of bravery yet. This is t...
The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad
The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad is another in the long line of children's books by conservationist Thornton W. Burgess. In this book, we follow the adventures of Old Mr. Toad as he joins the Spring Chorus at the Smiling Pool, shows off his babies, dis...
Billy Mink
“The stranger and the unknown must be always looked on with distrust.” -- Billy Mink The Green Forest and the Smiling Pool are full of adventure for Billy Mink and his animal friends – Bobby Coon, Jerry Muskrat, Juniper Hare and the others. But, dan...
The Christmas Reindeer
Tuktu and her brother, Aklak, are Eskimo children who live happily with their beloved reindeer in the Northland. When Tuktu is lost in a fog, she meets Santa Claus or the Good Spirit as she knows him. This generous little girl wants to share her rein...
The Wishing-Stone Stories
“Tommy scuffed his bare, brown feet in the grass … A scowl, a deep, dark, heavy scowl, had chased all merriment from his round, freckled face. It seemed as if the very freckles were trying to hide from it. Tommy didn’t care. He said so. He said so ri...
The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat
The story follows Jerry Muskrat, a curious and adventurous creature, as he explores his habitat and faces various challenges and dangers. The book takes place in the Green Forest and along the nearby river, where Jerry Muskrat lives with his friends...