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Gregory J. Lovern

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Born

in Eugene, OR, The United States

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Coal Creek Curios

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July 2012

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If you are interested in reviewing any of my books, let me know and I may agree to send you a free copy.

When I was 7 years old in 1972, as I was waiting in the book section of a store for my parents to do their shopping, I pulled a Thornton W. Burgess children’s book from the shelf and started reading it. When my parents came to collect me, I asked them if I could have it, and though money was very tight for them at the time, I must have been very earnest because they agreed. I finished reading it that day – I was a voracious young reader – and asked for more. Burgess was my favorite author then, and it was always a momentous occasion for me in those days when my parents brought home a new Burgess book.

Several years ago, when the time came If you are interested in reviewing any of my books, let me know and I may agree to send you a free copy.

When I was 7 years old in 1972, as I was waiting in the book section of a store for my parents to do their shopping, I pulled a Thornton W. Burgess children’s book from the shelf and started reading it. When my parents came to collect me, I asked them if I could have it, and though money was very tight for them at the time, I must have been very earnest because they agreed. I finished reading it that day – I was a voracious young reader – and asked for more. Burgess was my favorite author then, and it was always a momentous occasion for me in those days when my parents brought home a new Burgess book.

Several years ago, when the time came to start reading these stories to my own children, I was shocked to find that they were not in even the largest bookstores. And that few were in libraries. And that although Dover had paperback editions in print, most of these had terrible versions of what had originally been wonderful illustrations. After perusing Amazon, AbeBooks.com, and eBay, I concluded that the best thing to do for my children was start buying up old copies of the very same editions I had read in the 1970s. It boggled my mind that nothing better was readily available for such a wonderful author and for such adorable illustrations.

On reading the Burgess bibliographies by Wayne W. Wright and Michael W. Dowhan, Jr., I learned that the books had originally been serialized in newspapers, and it appeared to me that only around 10% or so of the over 15,000 newspaper installments had been published in book form. I also learned from those bibliographies that the vast majority of those newspaper installments had an illustration by Burgess' wonderful illustrator, Harrison Cady. I started borrowing microfilm of the old New York Globe newspapers from the Library of Congress through my local library, and scanning the Burgess newspaper installments.

It's been slow going, and very tedious, but when I was reading "The Adventures of Sammy Jay" to my kids, and came to the place in chapter 21 where Sammy Jay remembers a previous incident not in the book, my kids asked me when that happened. I recognized the incident as one that had been in newspapers August 11 - 23, 1913. They wanted to interrupt the reading of Sammy Jay to read those newspaper installments, so we did. I believe they must be the first kids to have that episode read to them since 1913.

I also discovered that three chapters had been removed from "The Adventures of Old Man Coyote". Reading the three missing chapters in the newspapers, I could imagine no reason for their removal other than space constraints. So I made the restored version of Coyote now available on Amazon.

After Coyote, I made the restored version of "The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver" now available on Amazon. It restores 10 chapters, which makes the book almost 50% longer, and much better. I especially love the new ending. Also, the original newspaper illustrations for Paddy were by longtime Burgess illustrator Harrison Cady, one per chapter. The restored version includes those illustrations.

It's a lot of fun seeing these wonderful old stories and illustrations that have been virtually inaccessable and unknown for a century, gratifying to see how they improve the books from which they had been excluded, and exciting to put them back in front of readers after all these years. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. ...more

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Gregory J. Lovern’s books

Average rating: 4.67 · 55 ratings · 4 reviews · 11 distinct works

	The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver: With 10 Lost Chapters Restored by Thornton W. Burgess, Gregory J. Lovern (Goodreads Author), Barbra Lovern (Editor) 4.06 avg rating — 497 ratings — published 1878 — 145 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Adventures of Old Man Coyote: With 3 Lost Chapters Restored by Thornton W. Burgess, Gregory J. Lovern (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Barbra Lovern (Editor) 4.68 avg rating — 31 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Thornton W. Burgess Reader's Guide & Book Collector's Guide: A Simple Guide to Reading & Collecting the Many Animal Story Books of Thornton W. Burgess by Gregory J. Lovern (Goodreads Author), Debra Hannah (Foreword) 4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Adventures of the Three Gray Fox Cubs: With 33 original vintage illustrations by Harrison Cady by Thornton W. Burgess, Gregory J. Lovern (Goodreads Author) (introduction), Harrison Cady (illustrator) 4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Christmas Stories: With Original Vintage Illustrations by Harrison Cady and Others by Thornton W. Burgess, Harrision Cady (Illustrator), Gregory J. Lovern (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Terrible Fate of Two Young Crows Who Challenged Hooty the Owl: And Other Realistically Harrowing Tales of the Natural World by Thornton W. Burgess, Gregory J. Lovern (Goodreads Author), Harrison Cady (Illustrator) 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Illustrated Thornton W. Burgess Sampler: Selections From 63 Books & Periodicals • 137 Vintage High-Resolution Illustrations by Thornton W. Burgess, Harrison Cady (Illustrator), Gregory J. Lovern (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver by Gregory J. Lovern (Goodreads Author), Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Thornton W. Burgess Reader’s Guide & Book Collector’s Guide: Find Your Next Burgess Story to Read and the Best Edition to Read It In! The Tao of Burgess by Gregory J. Lovern (Goodreads Author), Virtual Voice (Narrator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The adventures of Paddy the Beaver (The bedtime story-books) by Thornton W. Burgess, Gregory J. Lovern (Goodreads Author) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Gregory rated a book it was amazing Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection by Bill Watterson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 01, 2025 01:35AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons by Bill Watterson. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons by Bill Watterson <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Gregory rated a book it was amazing The Children's Bible by Golden Press	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
When my parents downsized to a smaller home, mom handed me this children's Bible. I saw that the inscription said that they had given it to me and my siblings in 1972 when I was 7. I looked through it and was struck by the high quality of the illustra ...more
Jan 02, 2025 09:01PM · 2 likes · like · see review
Gregory and 1 other person liked Tanya's review of The Children's Bible: "My copy of this book is inscribed in my childish writing "From Santa Claus for Cristmas" - must have been from when I was about 7. Though I'm sure I never read the whole thing, many of the illustrations look very familiar, and I know I had favorite s" Read more of this review »
Jan 02, 2025 08:50PM · see review
Gregory and 1 other person liked sldr's review of The Children's Bible: "It was beautiful to have growing up."
Jan 02, 2025 08:50PM · see review
Gregory and 16 other people liked booklady's review of The Children's Bible: "Read and LOVED this as a child. Bought a used copy for dear children so they could enjoy it as well. Surprised and pleased to discover it is ecumenical, approved by Christian as well as Jewish authorities. Published in 1965. If you are not bothered b" Read more of this review »
Jan 02, 2025 08:50PM · see review
Gregory rated a book really liked it The Scorpion God: Three Short Novels by William Golding	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
About 35-40 years ago I read all of Golding's books, except for An Egyptian Journal which I found extremely dull and did not finish. Later when the posthumous The Double Tongue came out I read that one too. The Scorpion God somehow went missing in my ...more
Feb 26, 2024 01:41AM · like · see review
Gregory wants to read Peckham's Marbles by Peter De Vries	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 24, 2024 10:21PM · like