About Gelett Burgess
Frank Gelett Burgess was an American artist, art critic, poet, author and humorist. He was an important figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary renaissance of the 1890s, particularly through his iconoclastic little magazine, The Lark, and association with The Crowd literary group. He is best known as a writer of nonsense verse, such as "The Purple Cow", and for introducing French modern art to the United States in an essay titled "The Wild Men of Paris." He was the illustrator of the Goops murals, in Coppa's restaurant, in the Montgomery Block and author of the popular Goops books. Burgess coined the term "blurb." At first, the magazine was edited and written primarily by Burgess, who took great delight in creating pseudonyms for himself. With a group of like-minded associates, he founded in 1895 a humorous little magazine entitled The Lark. "The double meaning of its name was intended. Burgess's departure from the university became an opportunity to reconsider his professional aspirations.
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