Stanley Burnshaw


Stanley Burnshaw was an American poet, primarily known for his ontology The Seamless Web. His style was particularly writing political poems, prose, editorials, etc. Aside from political poetry, Burnshaw is known for his works on social justice.

Family life

Raised by his parents, who immigrated from England, Stanley Burnshaw was born and brought up in New York City. There are few detailed depictions of his childhood, but in his later years Burnshaw wrote two poems giving light on that time period of his life. The first was a poem entitled "My Friend, My Father" which was about his childhood from the viewpoint of his father, and the second about his mother entitled "House in St. Petersburg". Burnshaw married Susan Copen Oken. Burnshaw had daughter, Valeri Razavi, and later became the grandparents to one grandson.

Education

Burnshaw began his secondary education at the University of Pittsburgh, transferred to Columbia University, and then transferred back to the University of Pittsburgh again to earn his bachelor's degree. After saving up money, Burnshaw traveled to Europe in 1927 to attend the University of Poitiers and eventually Sorbonne University. Then in 1928, he returned to New York to attend graduate school at New York University and earned his Masters degree.

Career

Burnshaw made a career plan to become a teacher and a writer. To save money and get started in his future career, Burnshaw started working at the Blaw-Knox Steel Corporation in Blawnox, Pennsylvania as an assistant copywriter. After he returned from Europe, Burnshaw began working at the Hecht Company in New York City as an advertising manager. Resigning from the Hecht Company in 1932, his next job was doing multiple duties for The New Masses, a weekly editorial in New York City. In the 1930s Burnshaw got more interested in publishing. He first became the editor-in-chief for the Cordon Company in New York, then president and editor-in-chief of the Dryden Press which merged with Holt, Rinehart and Winston in the late 1950s. Until 1968 Burnshaw was a consultant to the house and vice-president of Dryden Press. He published many prose, poems, books, editorials, and remained active in many other aspects of his career until his death in September 2005.

Works