Thornton Waldo Burgess (January 14, 1874 – June 5, 1965) was a conservationist and author of children’s stories. Burgess loved the beauty of nature and its living creatures so much that he wrote about them for 50 years in books and his newspaper column, Bedtime Stories. He was sometimes known as the Bedtime Story-Man. By the time he retired, he had written more than 170 books and 15,000 stories for the daily newspaper column. Thorton Burgess used his outdoor observations of nature as plots for his stories. In Burgess’ first book, Old Mother West Wind (1910), the reader meets many of the characters found in later books and stories. The characters in the Old Mother West Wind series include Peter Rabbit (known briefly as Peter Cottontail), Jimmy Skunk, Sammy Jay, Bobby Raccoon, Little Joe Otter, Grandfather Frog, Billy Mink, Jerry Muskrat, Spotty the Turtle, Old Mother West Wind, and her Merry Little Breezes. For the next 50 years, Burgess steadily wrote books that were published around the world in many languages, including French, Gaelic, German, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish. Collaborating with him was his illustrator and friend Harrison Cady of New York and Rockport, Massachusetts. Peter Rabbit was created by British author and illustrator Beatrix Potter, prompting Burgess to note, “I like to think that Miss Potter gave Peter a name known the world over, while I with Mr. Cady’s help perhaps made him a character.” From 1912 to 1960, without interruption, Burgess wrote his syndicated daily newspaper column, Bedtime Stories.

From 1912 to 1960, Thorton Burgess also broadcast on the radio. His Radio Nature League radio series began at WBZ (AM), then located in Springfield, in early January 1925. Burgess broadcast the program from the studio at the Hotel Kimball on Wednesday evening at 7:30 pm. Praised by educators and parents, the program had listeners and members in more than 30 states at its peak. Burgess’ Radio Nature League disbanded briefly in August 1930, but he continued to give radio talks for WBZ concerning conservation and the humane treatment of animals. In 1960, Thorton Burgess published his last book, Now I Remember, Autobiography of an Amateur Naturalist, depicting memories of his early life in Sandwich as well as his career highlights. That same year, Burgess, at the age of 86, had published his 15,000th newspaper column. He died on June 5, 1965, at the age of 91. His son had died suddenly the year before.