Doris Burn

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Cover of Burn's 1965 classic "Andrew Henry's Meadow"
Cover of Burn's 1965 classic "Andrew Henry's Meadow"

Doris "Doe" Burn (b. April 24, 1923 in Portland, Oregon) is a children's book author and illustrator who lives on Guemes Island in the San Juan Archipelago, part of the U.S. state of Washington.

She is most famous for the classic story "Andrew Henry's Meadow," inspired by her son Mark. It was published in 1965 while she was living and working on Waldron Island in the same archipelago. According to the blurb accompanying that book, her studio was "a small cabin where she spends the day at work after chopping enough wood to keep the fire going through the day, hauling two buckets of water from the pump for washing brushes and pens and brewing 'a perpetual pot of tea' " In 1965 Waldron Island was without electricity, telephone service, running water or merchants. All of her goods and supplies were brought by boat from the mainland.

She was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. Since first setting foot on an island in Puget Sound when she was nine years old, Doris had always wanted to live on one—a dream which she fulfilled after graduating the University of Washington. She had also attended the University of Oregon and the University of Hawaii.

She was mainly active as an author and illustrator between 1965 and 1971. Her distinctive style consists of absorbingly detailed line drawings, often of children matter-of-factly doing extraordinary things. She has four children of her own, whom she taught for one year in the island's one-room schoolhouse.

In 2005, San Juan Publishing issued a 40th Anniversary edition of "Andrew Henry's Meadow. Zach Braff is currently (2006) developing "Andrew Henry's Meadow" into a film for Twentieth Century Fox.

[edit] Works

Author & Illustrator of:

  • Burn, Doris (1965). Andrew Henry's Meadow. New York: Coward-McCann. 
    • Fortieth Anniversary Edition. (2005) Woodinville, WA: San Juan Publishing. ISBN 0-9707399-2-3
  • Burn, Doris (1968). The Summerfolk. New York: Coward-McCann. 
  • Burn, Doris (1977). The Tale of Lazy Lizard Canyon. New York: Putnam & Sons. 

Illustrator for:

  • Joseph Jacobs. Hudden and Dudden and Donald O'Neary. New York: Coward-McCann. 1968
  • Robert Nathan. Tappy. Knopf. 1968
  • Liesel Moak Skorpen. We Were Tired of Living in a House. New York: Coward-McCann. 1969
  • Patricia Lee Gauch. My Old Tree. New York: Coward-McCann. 1970
  • Patricia Lee Gauch. Christina Katerina & the Box. New York: Putnam & Grosset. 1971
  • Oscar Brand, When I Came First to this Land. New York: G. B. Putnam's. 1974