Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Burns, Vincent Godfrey, 1893-
- Extent:
- 4 linear feet (1 box)
- Language:
- English.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
In 1969 the UCSB Library purchased several autographed books and a small amount of manuscript material from the author, Vincent Godfrey Burns. Burns had lived in Santa Barbara for a time and several of his poems were inspired by or have references to Santa Barbara.
The manuscript portion of the collection primarily contains material relating to Burns' poems, written in a populist style, often on patriotic and homespun American subjects. It includes correspondence, printed and manuscript drafts of poems, brochures, reviews, programs, notices, and clippings.
Burns books include I am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! (with his brother, Robert Elliott Burns, made into a film, 1932), I'm in Love with Life (1933), Female Convict: As Told to Vincent G. Burns (1934), America, I Love You, and Other Poems (1957), Flame against the Night (1960), The Four Tests of a Loyal American (1966), The Man Who Broke a Thousand Chains: The Story of Social Reformation of the Prisons of the South (1968), and Heart on Fire (1969). These and other books by Burns have been cataloged separately and may be searched on Pegasus, the UCSB Libraries online catalog.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Vincent Godfrey Burns (1893-1979) was born in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at Pennsylvania State College (B.S., 1916), Harvard University (A.M., 1917), Union Theological Seminary (B.D., 1922), and Columbia University (post-graduate study, 1922-1925). He enlisted in the U.S. Army, 1918, and served on the staff of General Foote, 163rd F.A. Brigade, First Army Corps A.E.F. in France. He was a poet, Congregationalist minister, journalist, literary editor, public speaker, and screenwriter. In 1962 he was appointed Poet Laureate of Maryland.
Further biographical information may be found in the guides to the Burns collections at the Maryland Historical Society and the University of Maryland Libraries.
- Acquisition information:
- Purchase from Vincent Godfrey Burns, 1969.
- Physical location:
- Del Sur.
Access and use
- Location of this collection:
-
UC Santa Barbara LibrarySanta Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
- Contact:
- (805) 893-3062