Nathaniel Burt

Nathaniel Burt (November 21, 1913, Jackson Hole, Wyoming – July 1, 2003, Princeton, New Jersey) was an American composer, teacher, poet, novelist and social historian. A lecturer at Princeton University and Westminster Choir College, he is best remembered for his 1963 New York Times bestseller, The Perennial Philadelphians. Life and career He was the son of writers Struthers Burt and Katharine Newlin Burt. His father grew up in Philadelphia, the son of a prominent lawyer, and was a graduate of Princeton and Oxford University. A published poet and novelist, Struthers became a Wyoming rancher. Burt's mother wrote Western novels and short stories, several of which were adapted into screenplays for early films. They operated the Bar B C Dude Ranch, outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he was born in 1913. He had a younger sister, Julia Burt Atteberry (1915–1986). Among their neighbors was novelist (and Philadelphian) Owen Wister, who owned a nearby ranch. Burt's parents lived in Southern Pines, North Carolina during the winters, where he attended elementary school. He was sent to boarding school at The Saint James School in Hagerstown, Maryland, and graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1931. He attended Princeton University for a year, before dropping out and teaching in the Hoboken, New Jersey public schools. He completed an undergraduate degree at New York University's Mannes School of Music in 1939, and returned to Princeton to teach music theory in the Department of Music, 1939–1941. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1942, spent World War II in the Pacific theatre, and was discharged in 1945 as a lieutenant. He returned to Princeton after the war, and completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in music in 1949. His compositions included ballet, choral, orchestral, and piano music. He taught simultaneously at Princeton and Westminster Choir College, and was co-founder of the Princeton Chamber Orchestra.