View source for Maxwell Struthers Burt

{{short description|American poet}}

{{Infobox writer
| embed            = 
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| name             = Maxwell Struthers Burt 
| honorific_suffix = 
| image            = 
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| birth_date       = {{birth date|1882|10|18}}
| birth_place      = Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1954|08|29|1882|10|18}}
| death_place      = Jackson Hole, Wyoming, U.S.
| resting_place    = 
| occupation       = Writer, poet
}}

[[File:Maxwell Struthers and Katharine Newlin Burt.png|thumb|Struthers and Katharine Newlin Burt in Wyoming, 1921]]
'''Maxwell Struthers Burt''' (October 18, 1882 [[Baltimore]], Maryland – August 29, 1954, [[Jackson Hole]], 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.<ref name="Walser">Richard Walser, [https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/burt-maxwell-struthers "Burt, (Maxwell) Struthers"], ''Dictionary of North Carolina Biography'' (Chapel Hill: North Carolina Press, 1979).</ref> He graduated from [[Princeton University]] in 1904, then attended the [[University of Munich]], and [[Merton College, Oxford|Merton College]] at [[Oxford University]].<ref name="Walser"/> Following his return to the United States, he taught English at Princeton.<ref name="Walser"/>

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]], the [[Bar B C Dude Ranch|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).<ref name="Walser"/>

Burt served in the [[Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps|U.S. Army Air Service Signal Corps]] during World War I.<ref>Edward J. O'Brien, ed., "Burt, Maxwell Struthers", ''The Best Short Stories of 1917'' (Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, Inc., 1918), p. 489.</ref> After the war, he and his family began wintering in [[North Carolina]].<ref name="Walser"/>

Burt helped in the establishment of [[Grand Teton National Park]] 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.<ref>Letters between Struthers Burt and elected officials, Box 1A, Jackson Monument Letters, 1943, [https://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=wyu-ah07570.xml Burt Family Papers 1911-1970], 7570, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.</ref>

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."<ref>E. Digby Baltzell (1958), ''Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class'', Transaction Publishers {2004}: New Brunswick, NJ, p. 45.</ref> 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."<ref>Struthers Burt (1942), ''Along These Streets'', Charles Scribner's Sons: New York, NY, p. 292</ref> At the end of the novel, Felix escapes and finds himself on horseback in … Wyoming.
 
Burt's papers are housed at [[Princeton University]] and the University of Wyoming's [[American Heritage Center]].

His son Nathaniel was also a published author,<ref name="burtprinceton">{{cite web|url=http://diglib.princeton.edu/ead/getEad?id=ark:/88435/8623hx74p|title=Julia Burt Atteberry Papers, 1829-1979|work=Summary information|publisher=Princeton University Library|accessdate=2009-03-11|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100711022640/http://diglib.princeton.edu/ead/getEad?id=ark%3A%2F88435%2F8623hx74p|archivedate=2010-07-11}}</ref> 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."<ref>Nathaniel Burt, "Struthers Burt '04," ''Princeton University Library Chronicle'', Spring-Summer 1958.</ref>

== Bibliography ==
{{Incomplete list |date=February 2024}}{{bots|deny=Citation bot}}

===Novels===
*''The Interpreter’s House'' ([[Charles Scribner's Sons]], 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)
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=== Poetry ===
;Collections
*''In The High Hills'' ([[Houghton Mifflin]], 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)
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===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]], New York,1938) part of 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==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* American Book Exchange
* [http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/d504rk34t Papers and Biography in Princeton Library]

==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author | id=35484| name=Maxwell Struthers Burt}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Maxwell Struthers Burt}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2292}}
*[https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv745303/op=fstyle.aspx?t=k&q=struthers&f_repo=wyuah Burt Family Papers] at the [[American Heritage Center]]

{{Authority control}}

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