Knox Breckenridge Burger (November 1, 1922 – January 4, 2010) was an editor, writer, and literary agent who lived in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. He published

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...

's first short-story and with his wife he founded Knox Burger & Associates, a literary agency.Bruce Weber, Knox Burger, Agent and Book Editor, Dies at 87, ''New York Times'', January 12, 2010
available here.
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Early life

Burger was born in New York City and lived in early life in

Westchester County Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...

. Carl Burger, his father, was an illustrator. While serving in World War II, Burger contributed to '' Yank'', the Army Weekly 1943–1944. In a B-29 bomb squadron in the Marianas, Burger covered a number of missions over Japan, and was transferred to the ''Yank'' Saipan bureau late summer 1945 just before the Japanese surrender. Burger moved north to Tokyo, where he was, for a few months, the editor of the Far East edition of ''Yank'', and wrote numerous stories about the occupation. Burger, like his father, the author and illustrator

Carl Burger Carl V. Burger (June 18, 1888 – December 30, 1967) was an American "artist and writer of children’s books about animals and natural history." He is known for his children's and youth literature illustrations of '' The Incredible Journey'' by S ...

, graduated from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

Career

After the war, Burger worked as the fiction editor of Collier's. He then moved on to editing for Dell and Fawcett Publications. In 1970, he founded Knox Burger and Associates, a literary agency which later merged with the Harold Ober agency.The Fales Library guide to the Knox Burger Archive
Burger worked with writers including

, John D. MacDonald, John Steinbeck,

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery fictio ...

, Lawrence Block,

Jack Finney Walter Braden "Jack" Finney (born John Finney; October 2, 1911 – November 14, 1995) was an American writer. His best-known works are science fiction and thrillers, including '' The Body Snatchers'' and '' Time and Again''. The former was the ba ...

, Horace McCoy,

Walter Tevis Walter Stone Tevis (February 28, 1928 – August 9, 1984) was an American novelist and short story writer. Three of his six novels were adapted into major films: '' The Hustler'', '' The Color of Money'' and '' The Man Who Fell to Earth''. A four ...

MacKinlay Kantor MacKinlay Kantor (February 4, 1904 – October 11, 1977), born Benjamin McKinlay Kantor, was an American journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He wrote more than 30 novels, several set during the American Civil War, and was awarded th ...

, Morris West, Philip Cammarata, Donald Westlake, Martin Cruz Smith, and

Louis L'Amour Louis Dearborn L'Amour (; né LaMoore; March 22, 1908 – June 10, 1988) was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels (though he called his work "frontier stories"); however, he also wrote hi ...

. In 1980 he sold " Gorky Park" to

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

for $1 million. In 2000, Knox Burger donated his archive to the

Fales Library New York University's Fales Library and Special Collections is located on the third floor of the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South between LaGuardia Place and the Schwartz Plaza, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhat ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burger, Knox Cornell University alumni American book editors Writers from New York City 1922 births 2010 deaths United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II