Charles Bell Burke

Charles Bell Burke (July 27, 1867 – May 30, 1953) was an American academic administrator and university professor. He was head of the English Department at the University of Tennessee from 1923 to 1942. He was also the vice president and a professor of English at Southwestern Baptist University (now Union University).

Early life and education Burke was born on July 27, 1867 in Lauderdale County, Tennessee. His parents were Elizabeth Jordan Bure and Captain Robert Arnold Burke. His family moved to Dyersburg, Tennessee when he was a child and he attended primary schools there.

Burke gained an interest in literature from his older sister who became a professor of English at Galloway College in Arkansas.

He received a Ph.D. in English from Cornell University in 1901. Burke received a two-year fellowship at Cornell.

Career Burke taught at Chapel Hill Academy in Chapel Hill, Tennessee from 1889 to 1890.

In 1902, Burke became the editor of literature for The New International Encyclopedia in New York City. While at UT, Burke funded the Captain Robert A. Burke Award for excellence in prose fiction and the Eleanora R. Burke Award for excellence in expository writing.

Burke edited and wrote the introduction to Selected Poems of Christina G. Rossetti, published in 1913 by The McMillan Company. Also in 1913, he taught a course on "The Romantic Age of English Literature" for the Summer School of the South in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1940, Burke became an advisory editor on biography for the Southern Literary Messenger.

Honors In November 1942, the University of Tennessee Alumni Association honored Burke at a testimonial dinner, held during homecoming.

The University of Tennessee Department of English commissioned artist Anita Woods to paint a portrait of Burke in 1970.

Personal life Burke married Eleanora Richards of Nashville, Tennessee in 1892.

After retiring, Burke moved to Daytona Beach, Florida where he lived with his daughter. He died at the age of 85 on May 30, 1953 in Daytona Beach.