Description

Frank Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) was an artist, art critic, poet, author, and humourist. He was born in Boston, and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B. S. in 1887. He is famous for writing the poem Purple Cow: Reflections on a Mythic Beast Who's Quite Remarkable, at Least. The poem first appeared in volume 1, number 1 (1895) of the 16-page monthly magazine The Lark, published in San Francisco by William Doxey. Burgess wrote and illustrated several children's books about the habits of strange, baldheaded, idiosyncratic child-like creatures he called The Goops. The word "blurb," meaning a short description of a book, film, or other product written for promotional purposes, was coined by Burgess in 1907, in attributing the cover copy of his book, Are You a Bromide?; or, The Sulphitic Theory, to a Miss Belinda Blurb. The Guinness Book of World Records lists his collection of synonyms for the word "drunken." Amongst his other works are: Vivette; or, The Memoirs of the Romance Association (1897), The Lively City O' Ligg (1899) and More Goops and How Not to Be Them (1903).