Edith B. Burke Loved Words, Saw They Were Used Correctly

When Edith Baras Burke gave a book to a someone, young or old, it was more than a gift.

It was a commitment.

So strongly did this respected teacher and editor believe in the life of the mind, in growing well-read, imaginative people, that she kept files on every book and its recipient.

She then tracked the recipients' development through life, sending them specific books later to spur their progress - whether in Africa, Asia or the Persian Gulf.

Her records list about 4,000 books given to children to instill in them a love of reading.

"She was a person of extraordinary intellectual power," said Richard Johnson, chairman of the University of Washington history department.

"She also was the best copy editor I've ever known. She wasn't a respecter of persons when it came to bad grammar. It's just that she had a passion for accuracy. Whatever she did, she did passionately."

Mrs. Burke, who taught Latin at St. Nicholas School (1960-64) and later edited the Pacific Northwest Quarterly and Modern Language Quarterly, published by the UW, died of ovarian cancer Saturday. She was 60.

"She was an amazing human being," said her stepdaughter, Elizabeth Anne Furman of Roselle, Ill. "She had no children of her own, but she adopted students from around the world.

"Newcomers, newlyweds, new children, she gave them all gifts, either of books, or, for those that needed it, clothing and other things she had picked up at thrift stores and repaired herself."

A native New Yorker, Mrs. Burke also thrived on hearing spoken and sung words on stage or in a concert hall.

From her student days at the Girls' Latin School in Boston, Mrs. Burke took pleasure in language.

She earned a bachelor's degree at Radcliffe College and a master's degree in classics at Harvard University, then won a Fulbright Fellowship to study in the Netherlands.

"Her knowledge of Latin brought requests for assistance all her life," wrote colleague Carol T. Johnson. "One of her last tasks was to solve the puzzle of a Latin inscription produced by a scholar of World War II Japanese/American relations. She solved it, of course."

Mrs. Burke came to Seattle in 1960 to teach at St. Nicholas. But a chance to edit lured her away to scholarly journals.

She also taped books for the blind. One of the happiest moments of her life, Carol Johnson said, was the award of her certificate from the Library of Congress as a qualified Braille transcriber.

Other survivors include her husband, Robert Burke of Seattle, and her aunt, Pauline Cohen of Brooklyn.

Services will be private. Remembrances may be sent to the Talking Book and Braille Library, 821 Lenora St., Seattle, WA 98121.