Maxwell Struthers and Katharine Newlin Burt

Maxwell Struthers Burt (October 18, 1882

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

, Maryland – August 29, 1954,

Jackson Hole Jackson Hole (originally called Jackson's Hole by mountain men) is a valley between the Gros Ventre Range, Gros Ventre and Teton Range, Teton mountain ranges in the U.S. state of Wyoming, near the border with Idaho, in Teton County, Wyoming, T ...

, Wyoming), was an American novelist, poet, and short-story writer.

Life

Struthers Burt grew up in Philadelphia, where he attended private schools and worked at a city newspaper.Richard Walser
"Burt, (Maxwell) Struthers"
''Dictionary of North Carolina Biography'' (Chapel Hill: North Carolina Press, 1979). He graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1904, then attended the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

, and

Merton College Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. Following his return to the United States, he taught English at Princeton. In 1908, he moved to Wyoming and co-founded the JY Ranch with Louis Joy, which would later become the famous Rockefeller ranch of the same name. In 1912, following a dispute with Joy, he established his own

dude ranch A guest ranch, also known as a dude ranch, is a type of ranch oriented towards visitors or tourism. It is considered a form of agrotourism. History Guest ranches arose in response to the romanticization of the American West that began to occur ...

, the Bar B C Ranch. That same year, he met and married his wife, Katharine Newlin Burt, an author of Western novels. They had two children: Nathaniel Burt (1913-2003) and Julia Bleecker Burt Atteberry (1915-1986). Burt served in the U.S. Army Air Service Signal Corps during World War I. After the war, he and his family began wintering in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. Burt helped in the establishment of

Grand Teton National Park Grand Teton National Park is a national park of the United States in northwestern Wyoming. At approximately , the park includes the major peaks of the Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. G ...

when, in 1923, he met with other like-minded individuals at Maud Noble's cabin and began the process of gathering support to have the area come under protection by the Federal Government. He was also a fierce supporter of the Jackson Hole National Monument before it eventually formed the larger Grand Teton National Park. The premise of Burt's fifth novel, ''Along these Streets'', is a Westerner who inherits a large Philadelphia fortune, with the stipulation that he must move East and live in the city. Felix Bartain Macalister experiences the city's cultural traditions, and encounters various characters who attempt to guide or exploit him. Compared with contemporaneous novels, sociologist E. Digby Baltzell found it "… a far more sensitive portrait of Proper Philadelphia." This portrait, however, is painted in opposition to Proper Philadelphia's conservatism, which the main character readily acknowledges: "… I think I'm what might be called a radical liberal, but I'm for evolution, not revolution." At the end of the novel, Felix escapes and finds himself on horseback in … Wyoming. Burt's papers are housed at

and the University of Wyoming's

American Heritage Center The American Heritage Center is the University of Wyoming's repository of manuscripts, rare books, and the university archives. Its collections focus on Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West (including politics, settlement, Native Americans, and W ...

. His son Nathaniel was also a published author, as is his grandson, Christopher C. Burt (b. 1954). Nathaniel Burt wrote of his late father's novels: "There is always a love story, there is always a certain strict plotting of acceptance, withdrawal, misunderstanding, and final clinch that leads to much amusing discussion of the difference between men and women, but which does not escape a sort of artificiality."Nathaniel Burt, "Struthers Burt '04," ''Princeton University Library Chronicle'', Spring-Summer 1958.

Bibliography

Novels

*''The Interpreter’s House'' (

Charles Scribner's Sons Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City that has published several notable American authors, including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjori ...

, New York, 1924) *''The Delectable Mountains'' (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1927) *''Festival'' (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1931) *''Entertaining the Islanders'' (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1933) *''Along These Streets'' (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1942)

Short fiction

;Collections *''John O'May and Other Stories'' (1918) *''Chance Encounters'' (1921) *''They Could Not Sleep'' (1928)

Poetry

;Collections *''In The High Hills'' (

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

, Boston, 1914) *''Songs and Portraits'' (1920) *''When I Grew Up to Middle Age'' (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1925) *''War Songs'' (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1942)

Plays

*''The Mullah of Miasmia'' (1903)

Non-fiction

*''The Diary of a Dude Wrangler'' (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1924) *''The Other Side (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1928) *''Malice in Blunderland'' (1935) *''Escape from America'' (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1936) *''Powder River: Let 'er Buck'' (

Farrar & Rinehart Farrar & Rinehart (1929–1946) was a United States book publishing company founded in New York. Farrar & Rinehart enjoyed success with both non-fiction and novels, notably, the landmark Rivers of America Series and the first ten books in the Ne ...

, New York,1938) part of the

Rivers of America Series The Rivers of America Series is a landmark series of books on American rivers, for the most part written by literary figures rather than historians. The series spanned three publishers and thirty-seven years. History The Rivers of America Series ...

*''Patriotism Versus Prejudice: Hitler Forces at Work in America'' (American Jewish Committee, 1939) *''Philadelphia Holy Experiment'' (Doubleday, Doran, & Co., New York, 1945) *''The History of Cap and Gown: 1890-1950'' (Princeton University Press, 1951)

Notes

References

* American Book Exchange
Papers and Biography in Princeton Library

External links

* * *
Burt Family Papers
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burt, Maxwell Struthers 1882 births 1954 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American poets 20th-century American short story writers American male novelists American male poets American male short story writers Harper's Magazine people Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Novelists from Pennsylvania O. Henry Award winners People from Jackson Hole, Wyoming Poets from Baltimore Poets from Philadelphia Princeton University alumni Writers from North Carolina Writers from Wyoming