Archives West Finding Aid

Doris (Wernstedt) Burn was a United States children's author and illustrator, and long-time resident of the San Juan islands of Washington State. She was born in Portland in 1923 to parents Lage and Adele (Dotty) Wernstedt - Lage was a noted surveyer, cartographer and photographer for the U.S. Forest Service, whose work included surveys of the Cascade ranges and Pasayten Wilderness.

Doris Wernstedt attended Grant High School in Portland, and later the Universities of Washington, Oregon State and Hawaii. Her later artist and author statements frequently reference her childhood dream to live on an island: the Wernstedts purchased land on Waldron island in 1934, where they built a summer cabin, and forged close friendships with island residents including the writer June Burn and her family. Doris Wernstedt married South (Robin) Burn - the younger son of June and Farrar - at the end of World War II. Following completion of her studies, they settled at Fishery Point on Waldron island. Doris and South Burn had four children together (Mark, Robin Skye, Cameron and Lisa). The couple separated in 1955, though would remain close friends.

Burn held a life-long dream of becoming a children's book illustrator and author. In 1956, shortly following the birth of her youngest child, she travelled to New York City with a portfolio of drawings to show to publishers. The response that Burn received encouraged her to continue writing and drawings on her return to Waldron island. Her children recall her working late into the night by kerosene lamp (Waldron island had no electricity) after they had gone to bed.

Burn's first published work, Andrew Henry's Meadow, was issued by Coward-McCann in 1965, and won the Washington Governor’s Art Award in 1966. During the 1960s and 1970s, Doris Burn authored or illustrated a total of eleven published works. She later moved to Oakland, California, before returning to reside in Washington (State) - first to care for her elderly mother on Guemes Island, and finally in Bellingham. By the time of her death in 2011, Doris Burn’s best-known work, Andrew Henry's Meadow, had been republished by San Juan Publishing Company (2005), and her books and illustrations have continued to gain recognition as children’s classics. Philomel Books (a division of Penguin’s Young Readers Group) republished Andrew Henry's Meadow in Legacy Edition in 2012. This work has now been issued in Danish, Japanese and Korean language versions, and other titles illustrated by Burn also translated for overseas publication.