Burnham, Clara L(ouise) Root

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BURNHAM, Clara L(ouise) Root

Born 26 May 1854, Newton, Massachusetts; died 21 June 1927,"The Mooring," Bailey's Island, Casco Bay, Maine

Daughter of George F. and Mary Woodman Root; married Walter Burnham, 1873

Clara L. Root Burnham's father composed songs and cantatas, one of his most famous pieces being the Civil War marching song, "The Battle Cry of Freedom." Burnham attended Chicago public and private schools where she developed an ambition to become a musician.

At age nineteen Clara married a lawyer, Walter Burnham, and began a long and fruitful writing career. Burnham turned out an amazing amount of work. Not only did she write poems and stories for numerous magazines, but she also produced the texts for many of her father's cantatas. The list of Burnham's novels is impressively long. She had been writing girlish love stories for some time when she was suddenly inspired to incorporate her Christian Science convictions into her fiction. The Right Princess (1902) was the first tale in which she did so, and it was followed by many others carrying similar religious messages. Jewel: A Chapter in Her Life (1903), a bestseller, was Burnham's own favorite. "These cheery optimistic books," says one critic of her novels, "well-laden with propaganda for the faith, appealed to Christian Scientists and to admirers of the Pollyanna type of romance." Reviewers consistently labeled the novels "pleasant," and commented on the pervasive, yet not obtrusive, strain of Christian Science philosophy in each. Her plot structures and clear style were praised.

Burnham seems to have benefited personally from the beliefs she so earnestly tried to promulgate: the all-embracing love of God who works everything out harmoniously, and on whom one could rely with faith, love, and humility. Her fiction is not great literature but it is the reflection of a happy, serene spirit, and in its day, it gave pleasure and refreshment to many readers.

Other Works:

No Gentlemen (1881). A Sane Lunatic (1882). Dearly Bought (1884). Next Door (1886). Young Maids and Old (1888). The Mistress of Beech Knoll (1890). Sweet Clover (1894). The Wise Woman (1895). Miss Archer Archer (1897). A Great Love (1898). A West Point Wooing (1899). Miss Pritchard's Wedding Trip (1901). Jewel's Story Book (1904). The Opened Shutters (1906). The Leaven of Love (1908). Clever Betsy (1910). The Inner Flame (1912). The Right Track (1914). Instead of the Thorn (1916). Hearts Haven (1918). In Apple Blossom Time (1919). The Keynote (1921). The Queen of Farrandale (1923). The Lavarous (1925).