Item 0039 - Letter, Ottawa, to Lorne Pierce, Toronto.

Lawrence Johnston Burpee, historian, author and public servant, joined the public service in 1890. He was private secretary to three successive Ministers of Justice in the Federal Government and Librarian of the Ottawa Public Library, 1905-1912. From 1912 until his death, he was Canadian Secretary of the International Joint Commission.

Burpee was one of the founding members of the Canadian Historical Association; National President of the Canadian Authors’ Association; editor of the Canadian Geographical Journal; founding member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Writers’ Foundation; Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1911), Honorary Secretary (1926-1935), and President (1936-1937). He received the Medaille de Vermeil award from the Académie Française for work in Canadian history and the Tyrrell Gold Medal from the Royal Society of Canada.

Burpee published extensively in the areas of Canadian bibliography, geography and history. His publications include: A Bibliography of Canadian Fiction (1904, co-editor: L.E. Horning), Canadian Life in Town and Country (1905, co-author: H.J. Morgan), A Little Book of Canadian Essays (1909), A Century of Canadian Sonnets (1910), An Index and Dictionary of Canadian History (1911, co-editor: Arthur G. Doughty), Humour of the North (1912), Sandford Fleming, Empire Builder (1915), An Historical Atlas of Canada (1927, editor), Journals of LaVerendrye (1927, editor)