page_title: Clara Louise Burnham
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Clara Louise Burnham / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Clara Louise Burnham
context_page_description: Clara Louise Burnham was an American novelist. After the success of No Gentlemen, other books followed, including A Sane Lunatic, Dearly Bought, Next Door, Young Maids and Old, The Mistress of Beech Knoll, and Miss Bagg's Secretary. The daughter of George Frederick Root, she wrote the text for several his most successful cantatas. The 1923 film, A Chapter in Her Life is based on Burnham's 1903 novel Jewel: A Chapter in Her Life. Born in Massachusetts, she died at the family home in Maine in 1927.
context_section_description: Burnham married while she was still very young. Shortly after her marriage, a brother, who enjoyed reading her letters, urged her to write a story. The brother persisted for months, and at last, in order to show him the absurdity of his request, she began writing. To Burnham's surprise, her attitude soon changed. She wrote two novelettes and paid to have them critiqued by the reader of a publishing house, keeping her identity unknown. The response was unfavorable, the reader going so far as to say that, if the author were of middle age, she would better abandon all hope of success as a writer. Burnham, not being "of middle age," was as reluctant to stop writing as she had previously been to take it up. Recalling her lifelong ability for rhyming, she wrote some poems for children, which were accepted and published by Wide Awake, and that success fixed her determination.
  She wrote No Gentlemen (Chicago, 1881) and offered it to a Chicago publisher. He examined it, said it would be an unsafe first book, and advised her to go home and write another. The author's father, who until that time had not regarded her work seriously, liked No Gentlemen and believed in it. Through his interest, the book immediately found a publisher, and its success was instantaneous. Other books followed including, A Sane Lunatic (Chicago, 1882), Dearly Bought (Chicago, 1884), Next Door (Boston, 1886), Young Maids and Old (Boston, 1888), The Mistress of Beech Knoll (Boston, 1890), and Miss Bagg's Secretary (Boston, 1892). Besides her novels, Burnham wrote the text for several of Root's most successful cantatas, and contributed many poems and stories to "Youth's Companion," "St. Nicholas " and "Wide Awake." The 1923 film, A Chapter in Her Life is based on Burnham's novel Jewel: A Chapter in Her Life.
caption: Clara Louise Burnham
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