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.

[1] A lecturer at Princeton University and Westminster Choir College, he is best remembered for his 1963 New York Times bestseller, The Perennial Philadelphians.

[3] Burt's mother wrote Western novels and short stories, several of which were adapted into screenplays for early films.

[6] Burt's parents lived in Southern Pines, North Carolina during the winters, where he attended elementary school.

[11]: ix–x  Having grown up in Wyoming, North Carolina and Maryland, he was considered an outsider, "but Mr. Burt's roots led back to an old Philadelphia family much like those he chronicled.

"[2] With "biting social commentary," he traced how the great fortunes had been made (and preserved, or squandered), in "a genteel society of inherited wealth that views ambition as vulgar and not very nice.

[16] They attended Trinity Episcopal Church—where he sang in the choir and she was a member of the altar guild[16]—and he was co-author of a 1982 history of the church.

[7] Their son, Christopher C. Burt, is a writer and publisher,[18] author of Extreme Weather: A Guide and Record Book (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2004).

[19] Nathaniel and Margaret Burt are buried with his parents and sister at Aspen Hill Cemetery, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.