Ben Lucien Burman (1896-1984)
Ben Burman was the author of twenty-two books including several about the Mississippi. His, Steamboat Round the Bend, was a well loved book which was brought to the silver screen with an Oscar winning performance by Will Rogers.

Burman was born in Covington, Kentucky on the banks of the Ohio River. He was a cub pilot on the Tennessee Belle. He graduated from Harvard and worked for several
newspapers. Burman served in WWI and was severely wounded in France. Later he served as a war correspondent in the Middle East and Africa during WWII.

Burman was a gifted writer and was affectionately nicknamed the "New Mark Twain." His literary style mimicked Mark Twain in humor and character composition. He aroused an interest in river life and preserved tales of a lost era to young and old alike. His best known works were novels about the animal residents of Catfish Bend, Louisiana. The stories concentrate on animal characters that lived peacefully in a time of flooding.

Burman was the recipient of numerous awards throughout his illustrious career. These distinguished citations spanned from 1937 up through 1979.

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