Spotter's guides author Tad Burness dies | Hemmings Blog: Classic ...

Burness amid a sample of his work from the American Car Spotter?s Bible, 1940-1980.

As automotive authors go, he probably doesn?t spring to the top of most people?s minds, but he?s certainly one of the most referenced, and it?s a good bet that every old car guy has thumbed through his work at some point or another. Tad Burness, who inspired many a gearhead over the years with his spotters guide books and syndicated Auto Album feature, died last month at the age of 79.

Born Wallace B. Burness in 1933 in Berkeley, California, Burness began to publish his Auto Album feature on June 12, 1966, and continued to produce the illustrated snippet of daily automotive history up until his death. Since then, the Auto Albums have been collected in four volumes, to go along with his 25 other books, 22 of which focused on automobiles. Of those, the most popular by far were from his spotter?s guide series, which were more of a collage or scrapbook mashing together one model year per manufacturer per page with relevant information on the particular models scattered among the pictures. The spotter?s guide books don?t provide much depth or context, but they always proved a good resource for quickly identifying a car?s year, make, and model, and Burness always made sure to include up-to-the-minute material in his spotter?s guides rather than pick an arbitrary end date.

Burness, who lived in Pacific Grove, California, died of heart failure on November 19.

Source: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2012/12/11/spotters-guides-author-tad-burness-dies/

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