Gelett Burgess was born on Jan. 30, 1866, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1887 as a civil engineer. After serving a number of years as a draughtsman on survey work for the Southern Pacific Railway and as an instructor of topographical engineering at the University of California, he turned to writing.

His literary career began in 1894 in San Francisco as associate editor of The Wave. During the period 1895-97 he not only served as editor of The Lark but, with Porter Garnett, published Le Petit Journal des Refusées and Phyllida. All three were radical departures from conventional magazines and The Lark, with its originality and the famous Purple Cow verse which appeared in its first issue, gained him considerable fame.

With the demise of The Lark in 1897, Burgess left California for New York to pursue a literary career. By the time of his death in 1951, he had written some 30 books, illustrating many of them also, and had been a frequent contributor to magazines with his short stories, poems and essays. Despite the variety and quantity of his literary output, his name was generally associated with humorous, satirical writing. Included among his most famous works are the Burgess Nonsense Book (1901), Are You A Bromide? (1907), The Heart Line (1907), the satirical Maxims of Methuselah (1907), and Maxims of Noah (1913), Two O' Clock Courage (1934), and Look Eleven Years Younger (1937). His manuals of manners in rhyme for children, the Goop books, have become nursery classics.

Although Burgess traveled widely and lived in New York, Boston, San Francisco, London and Paris, in the public mind he has been identified with San Francisco. In 1950 he returned to California and settled in Carmel, and it was there he died in 1951.

Burgess is also famous for writing the poem "Purple Cow: Reflections on a Mythic Beast Who's Quite Remarkable, at Least."

The poem first appeared in volume 1, number 1 (May 1, 1895) of the 16-page monthly magazine The Lark, published in San Francisco by William Doxey. It was edited and written primarily by Burgess, who took great delight in creating pseudonyms for himself. For example, in volume 1 four of the other "authors" are Burgess writing under different names.

The final issue, number 25 entitled The Epi-Lark, was published May 1, 1897.

The original "Purple Cow," was published in 1895.

I never saw a purple cow
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one!

Having become associated with this verse, he wrote the following "Confession: and a Portrait Too, Upon a Background that I Rue" in The Lark, number 24 (April 1, 1897).

Ah, yes, I wrote the "Purple Cow"—
I'm Sorry, now, I wrote it;
But I can tell you Anyhow
I'll Kill you if you Quote it!