Mark Burstein (editor)

Mark Burstein (born 1950) is an author, book editor and expert on the works of Lewis Carroll.[1] He is a lifelong Carrollian and has been a key figure in the Lewis Carroll Society of North America (LCSNA).[2]

Mark Burstein

Lewis Carroll expert

Burstein's father, Sandor G. Burstein, inspired him with a love for the works of Lewis Carroll at an early age.[3] He has served the Lewis Carroll Society of North America (LCSNA) as its president, publications chair,[4] and longtime editor of its magazine, Knight Letter.[5] In 1979 he and Sandor founded The West Coast Chapter of LCSNA, Mark serving as its first and only president.[2][6]

Burstein has written, edited, or made contributions to over twenty books by or about Lewis Carroll.[3] He was the editor and art director of the deluxe 150th Anniversary Edition of Martin Gardner’s The Annotated Alice (W. W. Norton, 2015), and of the first trade edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland illustrated by Salvador Dalí (Princeton, 2015).[7] He is the series editor of The Complete Pamphlets of Lewis Carroll Volumes V and VI (LCSNA/University of Virginia Press, 2015, 2020).

Burstein continues to build the collection of Carrollian memorabilia begun by his father, Sandor.[8][9] He owns over two thousand editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass[6] in 132 languages,[10][11] and around fifteen hundred additional books by or about Lewis Carroll.[12][1]

Martin Gardner

Burstein is a longtime admirer of fellow Carrollian and Scientific American columnist Martin Gardner.[13] In 2011 he created and edited A Bouquet for the Gardener: Martin Gardner Remembered (LCSNA, 2011), with contributions from other Gardner aficionados including Raymond Smullyan, Douglas Hofstadter and David Singmaster.[12] In 2015 he edited the aforementioned anniversary edition of Gardner's Annotated Alice.[7] In 2021 he will be giving two talks at the 14th Gathering 4 Gardner; first a featured presentation titled What IS It about Alice?[3] and then a talk about the many occurrences of Lewis Carroll in Gardner's "Mathematical Games" column titled A Literary Englishman and the Scientific American: Lewis Carroll’s Appearances in ‘Mathematical Games'.[3]

Comics and Comix

Burstein is a connoisseur and collector in the field of the American comic strip, particularly Pogo, and the Underground Comix of the 1960s and 70s. His books include Much Ado: The POGOfenokee Trivia Book (Eclipse Books, 1988), Alice in Comicland,[14] and Dave Sheridan: Life with Dealer McDope, The Leather Nun, and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (Fantagraphics Underground, 2018).[15]

Personal

Burstein got a BA at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) in 1972.[16] A longtime supernumerary with the San Francisco Opera, he lives in Petaluma, California, surrounded by a huge collection of Carrollian memorabilia.[9] He is married to Llisa Demetrios, granddaughter of both Charles Eames and Virginia Lee Burton. They have two children, Martin and Sonja.

Selected publications
  • Pictures and Conversations: Lewis Carroll in the Comics, An Annotated International Bibliography, Edited by Mark Burstein, Byron Sewell, and Alan Tannenbaum, Ivory Door, 2003, OCLC 76972185
  • The Annotated Alice 150th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, by Lewis Carroll (Author), John Tenniel (Illustrator), Martin Gardner (Editor), Mark Burstein (Editor), W. W. Norton in (2015), ISBN 978-0-393-24543-1
  • A Bouquet for the Gardener: Martin Gardner Remembered, Edited by Mark Burstein, LCSNA, 2011, ISBN 978-0-930326-17-3
  • Соня вь Царствѣ Дива (Sonja in a Kingdom of Wonder), Edited by Mark Burstein, LCSNA, 2013, ISBN 978-0-930326-00-5
  • Alice In Comicland, Edited by Craig Yoe and Mark Burstein, IDW Publishing, 2014, ISBN 978-1-613779-13-2
  • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: 150th Anniversary Edition Illustrated by Salvador Dalí, Princeton University Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0691170022.

References
  1. Q&A with Mark Burstein on "The Annotated Alice" 150th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, BookCulture
  2. Chronological List of The Meetings of The Lewis Carroll Society of North America 1974 – by August A. Imholtz, Jr. and Mark Burstein
  3. Featured Presenters The 14th Biennial Gathering 4 Gardner Conference (2020): "Why is Alice in Wonderland, along with the other Alice books, so prevalent in our culture and around the world? Why is Alice the most quoted and widely illustrated novel in English, as well as one of the most translated?"
  4. Officers LCSNA
  5. The Knight Letter Official website of the LCSNA
  6. Radio Interview With Current LCSNA President on Carroll’s Birthday The Blog of the LCSNA, January 28, 2014
  7. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: 150th Anniversary Edition by Lewis Carroll, Illustrated by Salvador Dalí, Edited by Mark Burstein Thomas Banchoff
  8. Mark Burstein & Alice: a World of the Mind by Bruce E. McKinney, Rare Book Monthly, January 2004 Issue
  9. Knight Letter No. 98, Spring 2017 LCSNA: "The Burstein Carroll collection is located in a tower in one of two large buildings on the Burstein ranch in Petaluma. Over the years, he has built on and expanded the Carroll collection begun by his late father, Sandor Burstein, whose name will be well known to many Carrollians. Ranged in rows in the main room are stuffed White Rabbits and several egg-like figurines of the Humpty Dumpty variety. The 'Drink Me' collection offers many Wonderland-inspired potables, including Babble Mendocino red wine, a vin extraordinaire with Tenniel illustrations on the label."
  10. Author: Carroll Rare Book Room
  11. Burstein’s collection includes translations of Carroll books in Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Swahili.
  12. Books by Mark Burstein at Amazon
  13. The annotated Alice : Alice's adventures in wonderland & through the looking-glass edited by Mark Burstein and Martin Gardner, Buffalo Public Library: "Martin Gardner's groundbreaking work went on to sell over a million copies, establishing the modest math genius as one of our foremost Carroll scholars."
  14. Alice in Comicland New York Journal of Books
  15. Dave Sheridan: Life with Dealer McDope, the Leather Nun, and the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers by Dave Sheridan and Mark Burstein
  16. UCSC Campus Directory 1972: Mark Burstein University of California at Santa Cruz
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