James Lee Burke was born in Houston, Texas, and grew up in the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast area. His father, an engineer, was from Iberia Parish (county), Louisiana, where the Burkes have been a prominent family in the area since the 1830s. His mother’s family was from southeast Texas; her ancestors played a role in the colourful history of the region. Burke’s father died when Burke was eighteen. Shortly thereafter he enrolled at Southwest Louisiana Institute in Lafayette, Louisiana, and later transferred to the University of Missouri, where he earned his undergraduate degree and a Master of Fine Arts. While at the university he met and married his wife, Pearl Pai Chu, a refugee from Communist China. The couple has four children; their youngest, Alafair, is a successful writer of…
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Citation: Sim, Stuart, Laurence Mazzeno. "James Lee Burke". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 February 2009; last revised 06 February 2019. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12511, accessed 26 November 2024.]
