This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
01/27/2021 08:07 AMAndrew Wilkins of Essex lives in a historic home. But it’s not the home that has international significance.
Like most homes of a certain period, an oval sign from the Essex Historical Society adorns the front wood cladding, near the front door. The sign bears the name of Stephen Champion and the time period in which the home was built, circa 1755.
“It’s a modest style house, built out of necessity when they were farming there,” said Wilkins.
But what really “got my attention,” in terms of historical significance, he said, “is a little cabin on the property.”
Several yards from the homestead, nestled in a grassy area on an upper rock ledge, rests a 10- by 12-foot red cabin, once the writing retreat for Bermudian author Brian Burland.
“This guy was writing in Essex for five, six years, in a little cabin on the property and no one mentions him” in any historical documentation related to the home, said Wilkins.
Burland, born into a wealthy family in Bermuda in 1931, was the author of eight novels that “dealt with war, which he opposed, colonialism, family strife, and race,” according to Burland’s biography, published online at www.bermudabiographies.bm.
Those most familiar with his work, at the Brian Burland Centre for Research at Bermuda College, which opened in 2013, consider him to be one of the best writers of Bermudian literature.
“For us, here in Bermuda, Brian is, in a sense, the father of what is going on now. He gives Bermudian literature a kind of gravitas,” said Angela Barry, author and co-chair of the Brian Burland collection committee, in a video posting on the Bermuda College website.
Bermuda College Research and Instructional Librarian Lee-Ann Liles said in the video that instead of writing about “the nature and about the sea and about the sunshine,” Burland wrote about important societal issues.
“He focused on Bermuda during the ’60s and ’70s and the cultural aspect and the economic aspect and some of the taboo stuff that we don’t really want to talk about in Bermuda history and still don’t want to talk about.”
Most of Burland’s writing, according to his biography, was done in Essex in the late ’60s, evidence of which was discovered by Wilkins last spring when he started restoration work on the cabin.
“I started to do the cabin, a little bit at a time,” said Wilkins, who was informed by a neighbor that a writer had once lived at the homestead and wrote in the cabin.
Initially, Wilkins said, “I really didn’t pay much attention because I was concentrating on what I was working on and sometimes up on ladders.”
As his work on the cabin intensified, Wilkins started to find what he said were “little clues” about Burland’s time there.
“I found signatures and anecdotes from family members and others written on the wall by the door that stirred my interest,” said Wilkins. “I have a feeling that friends and family signed it to wish him well writing in there.”
The signatures were generally from the same year, 1967, which is when Wilkins believes the cabin was built.
Other clues were a writing desk, “an old pencil sharpener and hundreds of thumb tacks stuck in the wall near the desk,” said Wilkins.
After making these discoveries, Wilkins did some research on Burland and, realizing the artifacts’ significance, contacted Bermuda College and “sent all that to them. They are going to put them into the archives there.”
Liles said by email with the Courier that the materials from Wilkins will add to the existing collection on Burland at Bermuda College, which “consists of journals, scrapbooks, letters, pictures, art, novels, children’s books, and other ephemera.”
“It is always a pleasure to be contacted by people who are so invested in the Brian Burland collection, like Andrew Wilkins, that they are almost returning the collection home,” she said.
Asked about Burland’s legacy, Wilkins said “what appeals to me about Brian is that he came from a wealthy family but rebuked his wealthy status and found it in him to live the way he wanted, embracing his dreams and passions while subduing his demons.”
Burland worked in his family’s construction business after the death of his father in 1951, according to his biography.
“But in 1956, his determination to become a writer undiminished, he turned his back on a life of financial security and sold his interest in the company,” according to the biography.
Burland became a well-established writer and there was positive acclaim for his novels. He received an award from the Connecticut Commission of the Arts in 1984. He taught writing at Yale University and Connecticut College, according to his biography.
However, “After 1985,” his bio states, “Burland, who wrote religiously for four hours a day, was unable to find a publisher.”
“He is held in high regard as a writer, but like a lot of artistic people, struggled with depression and alcoholism,” Wilkins said.
The Champion homestead fell into foreclosure while Burland owned it, with Essex land records indicating a release of Burland’s tax liens in 1995, which is when realtor.com lists it being sold for approximately $78,000.
“I moved into the house three years ago,” said Wilkins. “I love this old house, but I knew it needed a lot of TLC.”
The idea of restoring the home appealed to Wilkins and his wife, Carolina Riachi.
“I have been working on the main house, replacing wood, painting, and getting all the mechanicals in shape,” said Wilkins.
Work on the cabin entailed replacing “a lot of wood rot and damage from every animal who passed by there,” said Wilkins, who was able to expand the cabin’s footprint by adding a deck.
“I was able to really get into the restoration and was constantly bringing wood and supplies up the rocks to the cabin,” said Wilkins.
With restoration of the cabin now complete, Wilkins said he plans to get more acquainted with the books that Burland wrote there—with a Bermudian drink in hand.
“I plan on buying some of his books and read them this summer up at the cabin, with a few dark ‘n stormies, of course,” said Wilkins.