Introduction

Biography

Berton was the son of judge Ar­thur Briggs Bra­ley and Al­ta Elec­tra Jor­dan.

He was edu­cat­ed at the Uni­vers­ity of Wis­con­sin (BA 1905).

He worked as a re­por­ter for the Butte, Mon­ta­na, In­ter Mount­ain (1905–06); the Butte Ev­en­ing News; Bill­ings, Mon­ta­na, Ga­zette; New York Ev­en­ing Mail; as as­so­ci­ate ed­it­or, Puck; and as a free lance writ­er, start­ing in 1910.

He was a spe­cial cor­res­pond­ent in north­ern Eur­ope (1915–16), and in France, Eng­land and Ger­ma­ny (1918–19).

He was a mem­ber of the Au­thors’ League Am­eri­ca, Am­eri­can Press Hu­mor­ists, the Play­ers Club, Ad­ven­tur­ers’ Club, and Dutch Treat Club.

Works

He was said to have con­trib­ut­ed about 6,000 po­ems, 300 short stori­es, and ma­ny ar­ti­cles to news­pa­pers and ma­ga­zines. His oth­er works in­clude:

• Sonnets of a Fresh­man (Wis­consin State Jour­nal, 1904
• Oracle on Smoke (Ma­di­son, Wis­con­sin [The Sphinx], 1905)
• Sonnets of a Suf­fra­gette (ChicagoChicago, Il­li­nois: Browne & How­ell, 1913)
• Songs of the Work­aday World (New York: George H. Dor­an, 1915)
• Things as They Are (New York: George H. Dor­an, 1916)
• A Ban­jo at Ar­ma­ged­don (New York: George H. Dor­an, 1917)
• In Camp and Trench: Songs of the Fight­ing Forc­es (New York: George H. Dor­an, 1918)
• Buddy Ballads: Songs of the A. E. F. [Al­lied Ex­pe­di­tion­ary Force] (New York: George H. Dor­an, ca. 1919)
• The Sher­iff of Sil­ver Bow (New York: Ja­cob­sen Pub­lish­ing, 1921
• The World’s One Thou­sand Best Po­ems, ed­it­or, 10 vol­umes (New York & Lon­don: Funk & Wag­nalls: vol­ume 1, 1929)
• Morgan Sails the Ca­rib­be­an (New York & else­where: Mac­Mil­lan, 1934)