Burton Egbert Stevenson

Who was Burton Egbert Stevenson?

Burton Egbert Stevenson was an American author, anthologist, and librarian. He was born at Chillicothe, Ohio on 9 November 1872, and attended Princeton University 1890–1893. He married Elizabeth Shepard Butler in 1895. He died 13 May 1962 and was buried in Chillicothe, Ohio.

While at Princeton, Stevenson was a correspondent for United Press and for the New York Tribune. He was city editor for the Chillicothe Daily News, and worked for the Daily Advertiser.

Stevenson became director of the Chillicothe public library in 1899 and held that position for 58 years.

Stevenson was well known for his war efforts. At Camp Sherman, located in Chillicothe, Ohio, he established a library of 40,000 volumes and 22 branches. The Camp Sherman library was said to be a model for national efforts to establish such libraries. In 1918 he founded the American Library in Paris, and was its director from 1918–1920, and from 1925–1930. He was then made European director of the American Library Association`s Library War Service, a position he held for seven years.

As well as being a librarian, Stevenson wrote numerous novels, including four young adult's novels, edited others' works, and created numerous anthologies of verse, familiar quotations, and the like. Many of his anthologies are still in print.