Charles Pierce Burton, (1862–1949) was a newspaper columnist and author of the "Bob's Hill" young adult books.
Biographical details
Burton was born in
Anderson, Indiana
Anderson, named after Chief William Anderson, is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Indiana, United States. It is the principal city of the Anderson, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses Madison County. Anderson is ...
, in Madison County.
His father worked for a newspaper and met his mother when she wrote columns for the paper as a student.
As a child, Burton moved to
Adams, Massachusetts
Adams is a town in northern Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 8,166 at the 2020 census.
History
Nathan Jones purchased the township of ...
, where he hiked around a ridge called Bob's Hill on the eastern slope of Mt. Greylock in Berkshire County. This ridge and the town of Adams would be the setting of most of Burton's later books. After the death of his mother, Burton and his father eventually moved to
Aurora, Illinois
Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage, Kane County, Illinois, Kane, Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall, and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Locat ...
. Burton attended
East Aurora High School
East Aurora High School, (also known as EAHS or Aurora East High School), is a public, four-year high school located in Kane County, at the corner of Smith Boulevard and Fifth Avenue in Aurora, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois. ...
, where he graduated in 1880.
Burton began writing books after hearing an editor mention that he was looking for a series of boys' books. Burton set his books in a fictionalized version of
Adams, Massachusetts
Adams is a town in northern Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 8,166 at the 2020 census.
History
Nathan Jones purchased the township of ...
. The beloved Bob's Hill series eventually covered 12 books, whose characters traveled to many parts of the world.
Burton worked as the editor of Earth Mover magazine and wrote a history column for The Aurora Beacon-News. The columns were later collected into a book of historical stories about Aurora.
Burton also published a collection of light essays entitled, "The Bashful Man and Others".
List of books by Charles Pierce Burton
* The Boys of Bob's Hill: The Adventures of Tom Chapin And The “Band”, as Told By The “Secretary" (1905)
* The Bob's Cave Boys (1909)
* The Bob's Hill Braves (1910)
* The Boy Scouts of Bob's Hill (1912)
* Camp Bob's Hill (1915)
* Raven Patrol of Bob's Hill (1916)
* Bob's Hill Trails (1922)
* Treasure Hunters of Bob's Hill (1926)
* Bob's Hill Meets the Andes: Doings of the “Band” in South America as Told In the Minutes (1928)
* Bob's Hill Boys in the Everglades (1932)
* Bob's Hill On the Air: Some Adventures the Secretary Failed to Record In The “Minutes of the Meeting” (1934)
"BOB'S HILL ON THE AIR"
''Kirkus Review''
* Bob's Hill Boys in Virginia (1939)
References
"Five Hundred Leading Books of the Season"
''New York Times''.
''New York Times''
''North Adams Transcript'', Saturday, April 23, 1977, Page 16
External links
*
*
Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame 2022 Inductee
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, Charles Pierce
1862 births
1949 deaths
Writers from Anderson, Indiana
American male journalists
Writers from Arizona
Writers from Illinois