Robert J. Burch (June 25, 1925 – December 25, 2007) was an American writer of 19 children's books whose readers are "usually young adolescents".[1] Many of his stories are based on his childhood experiences in rural Georgia during the Great Depression.[2]
Robert J. Burch | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 25, 1925 Fayette County, Georgia, US |
| Died | December 25, 2007 (aged 82) Fayette County, Georgia |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1960–2007 |
| Genre | Children's literature, realist young-adult novels, historical fiction |
| Notable works |
|
| Notable awards | Phoenix Award 1986 |
He was born in Fayette County, Georgia, and spent the majority of his life there. Robert J. Burch Elementary School in Tyrone is named for him.[2] In 1943 he joined the army.
Career
editBurch began writing in New York City in the early 1960s.
According to Dictionary of Literary Biography, his best books feature "realistic details of country and small-town life in middle and northern Georgia" during the Great Depression, the setting of his own childhood.[1] "His books are infused with his genial, optimistic view of life while maintaining a realistic, nonsentimental, serious, and moralistic approach."[1]
Awards
editBurch and Queenie Peavy won the second annual Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association in 1986, recognizing the best children's book published twenty years earlier that did not win a major award.[3] Burch received four Georgia Children's Book Awards and in 2007 the inaugural W. Porter Kellam Lifetime Achievement Award (after a University of Georgia Library director) for outstanding contributions to literary life in Georgia.[2] In 2009, Burch was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.[4]
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ a b c "Robert J(oseph) Burch Biography". Dictionary of Literary Biography. Reprint at BookRags (bookrags.com). Purchase required; opening lines retrieved 2013-03-02.
- ^ a b c "UGA announces Georgia Writers Hall of Fame inductees" Archived 2012-05-07 at the Wayback Machine. January 20, 2009. Franklin News. The University of Georgia. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
- ^ "Phoenix Award Brochure 2012"[permanent dead link]. Children's Literature Association. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
See also the current homepage, "Phoenix Award" Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine. - ^ "Robert Burch". Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
- "Fayette's noted author Robert Burch dies at 82". Archived from the original on August 24, 2007. Retrieved September 20, 2009.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Trey Alverson. Fayette County News. December 27, 2007. Nominally archived 2007-08-24[!]. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
External links
edit- Robert Burch at Library of Congress Authorities — with 27 catalog records