Editing Kenneth Burke (section)

==Personal history==
Kenneth Duva Burke was born on May 5, 1897 in [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]], and graduated from [[Peabody High School (Pennsylvania)|Peabody High School]], where he befriended classmates [[Malcolm Cowley]] and [[James Light (director)|James Light]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Long Voyage|first=Malcolm|last=Cowley|year=2014|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|isbn=9780674728226|page=599}}</ref> He attended [[Ohio State University]] to pursue courses in French, German, Greek, and Latin. He moved with his parents to [[Weehawken, New Jersey]] and later he enrolled at Columbia University.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/bios/Burke__Kenneth | title=Pennsylvania Center for the Book }}</ref> During his time there, he was a member of the [[Boar's Head Society]].<ref name=wolin>{{cite book | first = Ross | last = Wolin | title = The Rhetorical Imagination of Kenneth Burke | publisher = University of South Carolina Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wUMWvVFUC9cC&q=%22columbia+college%22+%22boar%27s+head%22&pg=PA5 | date = 2001 | access-date = 6 March 2016| isbn = 9781570034046 }}</ref> The constraining learning environment, however, impelled Burke to leave Columbia, never receiving a college diploma.<ref>"Burke, Kenneth Duva." Edited by Bekah Shaia Dickstein, 2004. http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Burke__Kenneth.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113004427/http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Burke__Kenneth.html |date=2015-01-13 }}.</ref> In [[Greenwich Village]], he kept company with [[avant-garde]] writers such as [[Hart Crane]], [[Malcolm Cowley]], [[Gorham Munson]], and later [[Allen Tate]].<ref>Selzer, Jack. ''Kenneth Burke in Greenwich Village: Conversing with the Moderns, 1915–1931''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996.</ref> Raised by a Christian Science mother, Burke later became an avowed agnostic.

In 1919, he married [[Lily Mary Batterham]], with whom he had three daughters: the late feminist, Marxist  anthropologist [[Eleanor Leacock]] (1922–1987); musician (Jeanne) [[Elspeth Chapin Hart]] (1920-2015); and writer and poet [[France Burke]] (born c. 1925). He later divorced Lily and, in 1933, married her sister [[Elizabeth Batterham]], with whom he had two sons, Michael and Anthony. Burke served as the editor of the modernist literary magazine ''[[The Dial]]'' in 1923, and as its music critic from 1927 to 1929. Kenneth himself was an avid player of the piano. He received the [[The Dial#The Dial Award|Dial Award]] in 1928 for distinguished service to American literature. He was the music critic of ''[[The Nation]]'' from 1934 to 1936, and was awarded a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] in 1935.<ref>''Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature'', edited by [[Stanley Kunitz|Stanley J. Kunitz]] and Howard Haycraft, New York, The H. W. Wilson Company, 1942.</ref>

His work on criticism was a driving force for placing him back into the university spotlight.  As a result, he was able to teach and lecture at various colleges, including [[Bennington College]], while continuing his literary work. Many of Burke's personal papers and correspondence are housed at [[Pennsylvania State University]]'s Special Collections Library. However, despite his stint lecturing at universities, Burke was an [[autodidact]] and a self-taught scholar.<ref>"Letters from Kenneth Burke to William H. Rueckert, 1959-1987", edited by William H. Rueckert, West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press, 2003.</ref>

In later life, his New Jersey farm was a popular summer retreat for his extended family, as reported by his grandson [[Harry Chapin]], a popular singer-songwriter. Burke died of heart failure at his home in [[Andover, New Jersey]], age 96.<ref>[http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADE099E1B49D55&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM "KENNETH BURKE, 96 PHILOSOPHER, WRITER ON LANGUAGE"], ''[[Boston Globe]]'', November 22, 1993. Accessed July 16, 2008. "Kenneth Burke, a philosopher who was influential in American literary circles, has died. He was 96. Mr. Burke died Friday of heart failure at his home in Andover, N.J."</ref>