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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Franklin Burroughs, a writer whose essays about the natural world have captivated generations of readers, will speak at Oregon State University on Friday, Feb. 5.

"An Evening with Franklin Burroughs" begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Valley Library on the OSU campus with a reading and question-and-answer session with the author, followed by a book-signing. The literary event, sponsored by the OSU Visiting Writers Series, is free and open to the public.

Burroughs is author of three books and numerous personal essays on rural living and the intersections of human and natural history. Burroughs's first volume of essays, "Billy Watson's Croker Sack," was an Editor's Choice selection of the Book of the Month Club in 1992. His other books include "The River Home," and "Confluence: Merrymeeting Bay," which in 2009 was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing.

Born and raised in Conway, S.C., Burroughs received a bachelor's degree at the University of the South, and his Ph.D. at Harvard. He eventually settled in Maine, where he taught for more than 30 years at Bowdoin College and raised a family. His essays, acclaimed for their grace and fluidity, invoke the writings of William Faulkner and E.B. White, yet, as one reviewer put it, "Burrough's style is distinctly his own: always elegant, sometimes simple, plainly honest, and perhaps most of all, completely authentic."

Burroughs' visit to OSU is supported by the Valley Library, the Office of the Provost, the Department of English, and the OSU Bookstore, in cooperation with Mt. Angel Seminary.