Gelett Burgess (1866 - 1951) was born in Boston. A graduate of MIT, he worked as an engineer and as an art professor before turning to the world of words for his livelihood. Though he was a serious journalist who produced respected articles and reviews, Gelett was best known as a humorist. His comics, children's books, and nonsense poems were much loved during his lifetime; his poem, "The Purple Cow," and his invented characters, "The Goops," remain widely known even today. Gelett is credited with creating the word "blurb," which came from one of his poems.