Robert Burleigh’s work as an artist extended across the fields of poetry, oil painting, music and writing more than 50 children’s picture books in a career that began as a newspaper reporter.

“He was multitalented,” said Wendell Minor, a longtime illustrator who collaborated with Burleigh on more than a dozen children’s books. “He just brought words to life, which gave me encouragement to do the best job I could.”

Burleigh, 90, died of prostate cancer Jan. 12 in Grand Haven, Michigan, said his daughter Nina Burleigh, also a writer. He had been a Grand Haven resident since 2008 and prior to that had lived in Old Town.

Born at Michael Reese Hospital, Burleigh grew up in the South Shore neighborhood and graduated from Hyde Park High School. In 1957, he earned a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University in Indiana.

Burleigh got a master’s degree in humanities from the University of Chicago in 1962 and spent his early career as a reporter for the Southtown Economist newspaper. In 1964, Burleigh began teaching, joining the English department at Wilson Junior College — now Kennedy-King College — on the South Side.

Burleigh also was a poet, and in 1965, with his friend Stuart McCarrell, he co-founded and co-edited Xenia: A Magazine of Poetry & Comment, a short-lived Chicago poetry magazine. Burleigh published a book of poetry and drawings, “The Triumph of Mittens,” in 1979.

Robert Burleigh (Mark Burleigh)

In 1967, Burleigh moved his family briefly to San Francisco during the famed Summer of Love. He later moved his family to rural Michigan, where he taught for a time at an elementary school in Nottawa Township, about 90 minutes northeast of Grand Rapids.

Back in Chicago, Burleigh worked for a Lincoln Park company called the Society for Visual Education, or SVE, which produced educational games and filmstrips.

A self-taught artist, Burleigh initially wrote reviews for the New Art Examiner. In the late 1970s, he began sculpting, and soon shifted to painting. Under the name Burleigh Kronquist, which he used solely for his artmaking and which is a nod to his mother’s maiden name, Burleigh regularly displayed his work in shows in Chicago, New York City, Michigan and Portland, Oregon.

Burleigh achieved his greatest impact from writing children’s books. Starting in the early 1990s, he provided the text for dozens of books for children ranging in age from preschool to fifth grade, including biographies and survival stories. For instance, he wrote “One Giant Leap,” a historical account of the first moon landing; “Home Run,” about baseball star Babe Ruth; “Night Flight,” about aviator Amelia Earhart; and “Langston’s Train Ride,” about poet and writer Langston Hughes.

In a 1998 Tribune review, English professor and children’s book reviewer Mary Harris Russell said Burleigh’s writing in “Home Run” was “smoothly in touch with the poetry of that perfect moment when ‘the fat part of the bat’ hits ‘on the center of the ball.’” And in a 2000 review of “Messenger, Messenger,” Burleigh’s book about a fictional urban bicycle messenger, Russell wrote that Burleigh’s authentic prose included “strongly rhythmic words (that) make us feel the surging energy as well.”

“He was really just a master at the poetic form,” said Christy Ottaviano, a publisher with her own imprint who, beginning in the 1990s, edited about 10 of Burleigh’s books. “Sometimes he wrote in poetry and sometimes he wrote in prose, but there was always this wonderful rhythm and rhyme and cadence to his work that made it stand out. He was facile with language, and it showed in the books.”

Ottaviano recalled working with Burleigh on books about President Abraham Lincoln, writer Henry David Thoreau and painter Edward Hopper.

“He would take these really giant figures and make them accessible to children,” she said. “I’ve done this job a long time, and it’s really hard to do that. He’d bring them to life, and with Wendell Minor’s beautiful art, the books were always well-received, and they’d make best-of lists. That’s why we kept doing them.”

Minor, who met Burleigh at a book fair in Aurora, said one of the duo’s best known books is “Edward Hopper Paints His World.”

“We were both Hopper fans, and I said to him, what do you think — there’s no biography for children about Hopper,” Minor recalled. “Even though he was in Grand Haven, and I was in Connecticut, we got along well.”

Burleigh also wrote books for children about mythical figures such as Hercules and Pandora, as well as about subjects such as  chocolate.

Burleigh never retired from writing, his daughter said. Outside of work, Burleigh enjoyed playing basketball at a Chicago YMCA until he was in his 70s, said Frank Zirbel, a longtime friend.

“He lived for art, that’s for sure,” Zirbel said. “He was just an adventurer, and he never really stopped.”

His first marriage, to Berta Thomas, ended in divorce. In addition to his daughter, Burleigh is survived by his wife, Jenny Roberts; a son, Mark; another daughter, Julie; a sister, Judy Myers; and four grandchildren.

A memorial service is being planned.

Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/20/robert-burleigh-writer-obituary/