Background
Burnett, Whit was born on August 14, 1899 in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Son of Benjamin James and Anna Marian (Christensen) Burnett.
Burnett, Whit was born on August 14, 1899 in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Son of Benjamin James and Anna Marian (Christensen) Burnett.
Student of University of Southern California 1918. U. Utah, 1920; University of California 1921.
Reporter, Salt Lake newspapers 1916.
Reporter on Evening Express, Los Angeles, 1918. Editor Associate Press, Los Angeles, 1919-1920, San Francisco, 1921, assistant city editor, New York 1926-1927. City editor, New York Herald.
Paris edition, 1927-1928. Organizer Balkan news service for New York Sun Foreign Service and Consolidated Press, Vienna, Austria, 1929-1931. Founder, with Martha Foley, of magazine, Story, Vienna, 1931, transferred magazine to New York, 1933.
With J.B. Lippincott Company 1939-1949, Evangelical Presbyterian Dutton, other companies 1949-1973. Editor Scholastic Press, until 1971. Instructor advanced short story, Columbia University, 1936-1943.
Queens College, 1940, Hunter College, 1957-1958. Editor Hawthorn Books. New York City, 1958-1961.
Editor (with Hallie Burnett) Story Magazine, Story Press, 1942-1965. Member editorial board Story (acquired by Scholastic Magazines, Inc.). 1966, director Story’s College Creative Awards Contest, 1966-1971.
Editor (with Martha Foley). A Story Anthology, 1933, Story in America, 1934. The Flying Yorkshireman, novellas, 1937.Editor: This Is My Best, anthology of 93 of America’s greatest living authors, 1942. Two Bottles of Relish, a book of strange stories, 1942. The Seas of God, great stories of the human spirit, 1944.Time To Be Young, 1945. The Story Pocket Book, 1945. American Writers Today (with C.E. Slatkin), 1947.Story: The Fiction of the Forties, and Sextet (with Hallie Burnett), 1949, 51. The World’s Best, 1950. Story, Northern 1, 2, 3, 4 (with Hallie Burnett) 1951-1954.Editor and collaborator on This Is My Best, radio series, 1944-1945. Author: The Maker of Signs (short stories), 1934, The Literary Life and the Hell With It (essays), 1939. Immortal Bachelor, The Love Story of Robert Burns (with John Pen), 1942.Contributor articles and stories to mags. Editor: This Is My Best Humor, 1955. The Spirit of Adventure, 1956.Animal Spirits, 1956. This is My Philosophy, 1957. The Spirit of Man, 1958.Firsts of the Famous, 1962. (with Hallie Burnett). Best College Writing, 1962, Prize College Stories, 1963, The Stone Soldier, 1964, The Modern Short Story in the Making, 1964, Story Jubilee, 1965.Story: The Yearbook of Discovery, 1968, 69, 70, 71, That’s What Happened to Me, 1969. This Is My Best, 1970. Black Hands on a White Face, 1971.
Member editorial board Story (acquired by Scholastic Magazines, Inc.). 1966, director Story’s College Creative Awards Contest, 1966-1971.
Married Martha Foley, 1930 (divorced).; married second, Hallie Southgate Abbett, 1942. Children: John, Whitney Ann Beekman.