Norman S. Barrett is a prolific author of books for children. Born on August 27, 1935, in London, England, Barrett was educated at St. Catherine's College, Oxford (B.A., 1957; M.A., with honors, 1960). He has written over 100 nonfiction books, some of them under the names of N. S. Barrett, C. J. Norman, and R. J. Stephen. Barrett credits his background in editing and publishing for giving him the many skills necessary to produce a publisher-ready work. He is capable of doing design, layout, and proofreading, as well as writing and researching. For his popular Picture Library series published by Franklin Watts, which includes a wide variety of subjects for six-to nine-year-olds, he… researches, then writes in basic vocabulary that conforms to the page design, and finally has the content authenticated by an expert. The resulting titles range from Astronauts to Monkeys and Apes to Windsurfing, and meet the informational needs of children in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Before he began writing for juveniles in 1979, Barrett worked as an editor and founded Publicare Ltd., an editorial services firm. He has been a contributor to many sports reference works, such as Purnell's Encyclopedia of Sports, and to many general reference books, including The World of Knowledge Encyclopedia. Barrett makes his home in London, England.
Robert Burns (175996) was born into a farming family in Ayrshire, Scotland. The publication in 1786 of his first book, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish dialect, made him famous overnight and saw him f�ted by Edinburgh society. But Burns made no money from his writing and quickly fell on hard times, returning to farming in Dumfries, and, when that failed, to work as an Excise officer. He devoted his final years to poetry and the writing of Scottish songs.