Robert Burch papers, 1915-2007, bulk 1943-2000

Summary

Creator:
Burch, Robert Joseph, 1925-2007
Date:
1915-2007, bulk 1943-2000
Extent:
24 Linear Feet 46 boxes, 1 oversize folder
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Robert Burch papers, ms3744, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The University of Georgia Libraries.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists of biographical information, family correspondence, personal correspondence, business correspondence, writings and speeches, financial papers, printed material, photographs, and artifacts.

Family correspondence is between Burch and his parents, siblings, aunts, nieces and nephews. He writes descriptive letters from Japan in 1954 and more from London in 1978-1979. A majority of the business correspondence is with publishers, especially Viking Press, the publisher of most of his books. There is also correspondence with elementary schools, high schools, colleges, and libraries that he visited for speaking engagements, conferences and book signings.

Writings include journals of his freighter trips, and typed versions and galley proofs of many of his books.

A large portion of the financial papers are royalty statements from the sale of his books.

There are photographs of Burch and his family and friends, and photographs of Japan taken while he lived there. Also included are photographs of dogs, ducks, swans, and koi all of which he considered as pets.

Biographical / historical:

Robert Joseph Burch (1925-2007) was born in Inman, Georgia (Fayette County) to John Ambrose and Nell Graham Burch. He joined the U.S. Army in 1943 and served in New Guinea and Australia during World War II. After graduating from the University of Georgia in 1949 with a degree in agriculture, he worked in civil service with the U. S. Army in Japan. Later travels included a Danish freighter trip to ports in Asia, Africa and Europe. Burch first began writing when he lived in New York for several years, but eventually moved back to the family home in Fayetteville (Ga.). He was the author of nineteen books for children, including Queenie Peavy (1966), Ida Early Comes Over the Mountain (1980), and his first The Traveling Bird (1959). Many of his award-winning books were based on his experiences in rural Georgia during the Depression.

Access and use restrictions

Preferred citation:

Robert Burch papers, ms3744, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The University of Georgia Libraries.