BURROUGHS, John, American essayist and literary naturalist: b. Roxbury, N.
3 April 1837. In his youth he taught school for about 10 years; he began early to write for the magazines; in 1863 he became clerk in the Treasury Department at Washington, D. C., where he worked for 10 years, carry ing on his literary activities simultaneously. Later he became a national bank examiner. In 1873 he built his home at West Park, on the Hudson, where he has since lived, devoting himself to fruit culture, nature study and literature. In 1862 Mr. Burroughs wrote the poem, 'Waiting,' by which he is perhaps more widely known than by any of his books. His first book, 'Walt Whitman, Poet and Person,' was written in 1867, he being the first person of note in the United States to give public recognition of Whitman. His later book on the (Good Gray Poet,> 'Whitman, a Study,' was published in 1896, and was the result of many years of comrade ship with the poet. Mr. Burroughs has gathered most of the harvest for his nature books near at home, either at uRiverby," in his bark-covered study, or in the region of aSlabsides,s his retreat back from the Hudson, near West Park, or in later years at chuck Lodge, on the farm in the Catskills where he was born. He has, however, wan dered away from these haunts occasionally, as his books testify— to many parts of the United States, to Bermuda, the West Indies, the Canadas, twice to Europe, on the Alaskan expedition of 1899 with E. H. Harriman, in the Yellowstone in 1903 with President Roose velt, through the Southwest and Yosemite with John Muir, in 1909, and also to Hawaii. The
personal element is very marked in his writ ings, and the charm of his easy familiar style, with his remarkable observation and interpre tation of nature, has done much to popularize the study of nature in our day, while his work on literary criticism, his character studies and his philosophical essays are eagerly welcomed by lovers of good literature. His books, with the dates of their publication, are 'Walt Whit man, Poet and Person' (1867); 'Wake Robin' (1871) ; (Winter Sunshine' (1875) • 'Birds and Poets' (1877) ; 'Locusts and Wild' Honey' (1879) ; (1881); 'Fresh Fields) (1884); 'Signs and Seasons' (1886); (Indoor Studies' (1889) ; (Riverby' (18194); 'Whit man, a Study' (1896) ; 'The Light of Day> (1900); 'Literary Values" (1902); 'Life of Audubon' (1902); 'Far and Near' (1904) •, 'Ways of Nature' (1905); 'Bird and Bough' Poems (1906) • 'Camping and Tramping with Roosevelt> (1907); 'Leaf and - Tendril' (1908) ; 'Time and Change> (1912); 'The Summit of the Years' (1913); 'The Breath of Life' (1915) ; 'Under the Apple Trees' (1916). Mr. Burroughs has also edited a vol ume of nature poems, 'Songs of Nature> (1901); and several books have been compiled from his works— 'Birds and Bees' ; 'Afoot and Afloat' ; 'Sharp Eyes' ; 'Little Nature Studies' ; (Squirrels and Other Fur 'A Year in the Fields; 'In the Catskills' ; and 'Bird Stories from Burroughs.>