Author and editor of numerous children's books, Thornton W. Burgess was also a noted conservationist. In writing for youngsters he combined a gift for storytelling with his love of the outdoors, creating an entertaining menagerie of animals whose adventures he skillfully recounted in a series of charming fables. In them, he taught young readers about nature and encouraged them to love the "lesser folk in fur and feathers."
In this delightfully told tale, Burgess chronicles the escapades of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, who's known throughout the Green Forest as a mischief maker. Narrowly escaping the clutches of Shadow the Weasel and Redtail the Hawk, the bushy-tailed little fellow decides to leave the forest for a new home, only to learn that curiosity, carelessness, and mistrust can lead to a heap of troubles.
First published in 1915, this engaging story will charm readers of all ages — as well as young listeners.
Thornton Waldo Burgess (January 17, 1874 – June 5, 1965) was an American conservationist and author of children's stories. He was sometimes known as the Bedtime Story-Man, after his newspaper column Bedtime Stories. By the time he retired, he had written more than 170 books and 15,000 stories for the daily newspaper column.
Early life and career
Born January 17, 1874 in Sandwich, Massachusetts,[1] on Cape Cod, 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.[2]
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".[3]
Burgess married Nina Osborne in 1905, but she died in childbirth a year later, leaving him to raise their son alone. It is said that he began writing bedtime stories to entertain his young son, Thornton III.[4] Burgess remarried in 1911; his wife Fannie had two children by a previous marriage. The couple later bought a home in Hampden, Massachusetts, in 1925 that became Burgess' permanent residence in 1957. His second wife died in August 1950. Burgess returned frequently to Sandwich, which he always claimed as his spiritual home. Many of his childhood experiences and the people he knew there influenced his interest and were the impetus for his concern for wildlife.