Doris Burn
{{short description|American writer}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Doris Burn
| image = Doris Burn.jpg
| caption = Doris Burn at her home in Guemes Island, Washington
| birth_name = Doris Wernstedt
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1923|04|24}}
| birth_place = Portland, Oregon
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2011|03|09|1923|04|24}}
| death_place = Bellingham, Washington
| alma_mater = University of Washington
| period = 1965–1976
| notableworks = Andrew Henry's Meadow
}}
Doris "Doe" Burn (born Doris Wernstedt; April 24, 1923 – March 9, 2011){{cite news|title=Doris (Doe) Burn|url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/obit/135F12E22D5587A0-135F12E22D5587A0?p=OBIT|accessdate=29 April 2016|work=Bellingham Herald, The (WA)|agency=America's Obituaries and Death Notices|publisher=NewsBank, Inc.|date=13 March 2011}} was an American children's book author and illustrator. She lived most of her life on Waldron Island in the San Juan Islands archipelago of Washington.
Life and career
Doris Wernstedt was born in Portland, Oregon, to Lage Wernstedt, an explorer, mountaineer and United States Forest Service worker, and his wife, Adele. The family resided on Guemes Island near Anacortes. After being interviewed by writer June Burn for the Bellingham Herald, the Wernstedt and Burn families became friends; the two families had nearby summer cabins on Waldron, a small island without ferry service.
Burn attended the University of Oregon and the University of Hawaii, and graduated from the University of Washington. She married South ("Bob") Burn after World War II and the couple made their home on Waldron Island. She had four children, whom she taught for one year on Guemes Island's one-room schoolhouse. Burn separated from her husband, but they remained lifelong friends and neighbors. Burn worked on her meticulous illustrations in the evenings, in "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.'"Blurb from Andrew Henry's Meadow, 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. In 1956, Burn took a portfolio of illustrations to publishers in New York and was encouraged to continue working. Her children remember her working late nights by lantern-light with the fireplace burning down to embers.
Her oldest son, Mark Nathaniel Burn, was the inspiration for her first book, Andrew Henry's Meadow (1965), the story of a boy who, ignored by his family, builds a retreat for himself in a nearby meadow. He is soon joined by other children for whom he also builds houses, tailored to their interests and hobbies. Andrew Henry's Meadow won the Washington Governor's Art Award and was a Weekly Reader book club selection. It was reissued in a 40th anniversary edition by San Juan Publishing in 2005 and again by Philomel Books in 2012,.{{cite web|title=Andrew Henry's Meadow - Penguin Books USA|url=http://www.penguin.com/book/andrew-henrys-meadow-by-doris-burn-illustrated-by-doris-burn/9780399256080|website=Penguin Group USA|publisher=Penguin Group USA|accessdate=26 August 2016}} She went on to write The Summerfolk and The Tale of Lazy Lizard Canyon, and illustrated eight others.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}
Death
Legacy
The Burn family donated a collection of Doris' work to Western Washington University.{{cite web|title=New Collection of Doris Burn Artwork and Manuscripts Donated to Western|url=https://westerntoday.wwu.edu/news/releases/new-collection-of-doris-burn-artwork-and-manuscripts-donated-to-western|website=Western Washington University|publisher=Western Washington University|accessdate=29 April 2016}} The collection is made available by Western Libraries Heritage Resources.{{cite web|title=New Collection Features Doris Burn Artwork & Manuscripts|url=http://library.wwu.edu/node/16439|website=The News @ Western Libraries|publisher=Western Washington University|accessdate=29 April 2016|archive-date=2 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160702154315/http://library.wwu.edu/node/16439|url-status=dead}}
Works
=Author and illustrator=
- {{Cite book| author=Burn, Doris | title=Andrew Henry's Meadow | location=New York | publisher=Coward-McCann | year=1965}}{{cite web|title=Andrew Henry's Meadow|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/399068.Andrew_Henry_s_Meadow|website=Goodreads|publisher=Goodreads Inc.|accessdate=29 April 2009}}
- Fortieth Anniversary Edition. (2005) Woodinville, WA: San Juan Publishing. {{ISBN|0-9707399-2-3}}
- {{Cite book| author=Burn, Doris | title=The Summerfolk | location=New York | publisher=Coward-McCann | year=1968}},{{cite web|title=The Summerfolk|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1360123.The_Summerfolk|website=Goodreads|publisher=Goodreads Inc.|accessdate=29 April 2016}}
- {{Cite book| author=Burn, Doris | title=The Tale of Lazy Lizard Canyon | location=New York | publisher=Putnam & Sons | year=1976}}{{cite web|title=The Tale of Lazy Lizard Canyon|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1365898.The_Tale_Of_Lazy_Lizard_Canyon|website=Goodreads|publisher=Goodreads Inc.|accessdate=29 April 2016}}
=Illustrator=
- 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
=Film=
Actor Zach Braff has been adapting Andrew Henry's Meadow into a film for Twentieth Century Fox since 2004.{{cite news|title=In Defense Of the State of New Jersey|last=OGUNNAIKE|first=Lola|date=2004-07-25|work=The New York Times}} Barry Sonnenfeld signed on to direct the film in early 2010.{{cite news|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002462711|title=Sonnenfeld eyeing trip to 'Meadow'|last=Siegel|first=Tatiana|date=2006-05-04|work=The Hollywood Reporter|accessdate=2010-02-25}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}
References
{{Reflist}}
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Category:American children's writers
Category:Writers from Portland, Oregon
Category:People from Skagit County, Washington
Category:University of Washington alumni
Category:University of Oregon alumni
Category:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni
Category:Writers from Washington (state)
Category:American women children's writers