A Burgess Birthday
…I never Saw a Purple Cow…
It’s the birthday of humorist and novelist (Frank) Gelett Burgess, born in Boston, Massachusetts (1866). He wrote more than 35 books of fiction and nonfiction, as well as several plays, including the satirical book Are You a Bromide? (1897). But he is best known for a short poem he published in the first issue of a humor magazine called Lark. It reads, “I never Saw a Purple Cow; / I never Hope to See One; / But I can Tell you, Anyhow, / I’d rather See than Be One.” The fame of the poem followed him for a long time, and years later he wrote, “Ah, yes, I wrote the Purple Cow; / I’m sorry now I wrote it; / But I can tell you, Anyhow, / I’ll Kill you if you Quote it.”
Gelett Burgess said, “If in the last few years you haven’t discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead”.
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