Vincent Godfrey Burns

Vincent Godfrey Burns (1893 Brooklyn - 1979) was Poet Laureate of Maryland, from 1962 until 1979.

He graduated from Penn State University in 1916, Harvard University, and Union Theological Seminary in 1922. He studied at Columbia University from 1922 to 1924. He served in World War I, in the 163rd Field Artillery. He was ordained as a Congregational minister. He married Edna Rodenberger in 1924; they had one daughter.

He collaborated with his brother, Robert, on I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang. It was made into a movie in 1932, by Warner Brothers, and was nominated for several Academy Awards. He was appointed Poet Laureate of Maryland in 1962, by Governor J. Millard Tawes. There were attempts to unseat him, he remained Poet Laureate until his death in 1979.

His papers are held at the University of Maryland,Maryland Historical Society,Columbia University,Syracuse University, and Kent State University.

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