author
W. F. Burns
A railroad worker turned eyewitness historian, this writer captured the Pullman Strike while its arguments and emotions were still fresh. His best-known book gives readers a vivid labor-era account from someone who knew the rail world from the inside.
1 Audiobook
About the author
W. F. Burns is known for The Pullman Boycott: A Complete History of the Great R. R. Strike, a contemporary account of the 1894 Pullman Strike. Sources available here confirm that the book was first published in 1894 and that Burns is chiefly remembered through that work.
From descriptions tied to the book, Burns wrote as someone close to railroad life, and at least one source describes him as a former railroad worker. That perspective helps explain the book's direct, ground-level feel: rather than a distant overview, it reads like a participant's attempt to record a major labor conflict as it unfolded.
Very little biographical information about Burns appears to be reliably documented in the sources I could confirm during this conversation. Because of that, the clearest picture of him comes through his writing itself: an author concerned with labor, railroads, and the human stakes of one of the most famous strikes in American history.