Claire Burch was an American author, filmmaker and poet.
12 Facts About Claire Burch
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Claire Burch developed a career as a psychiatric writer, publishing two books on the subject: Careers in Psychiatry and Stranger in the Family.
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In 1978, Claire Burch moved to California with her longtime companion Mark Weiman, publisher and owner of Berkeley's Regent Press.
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Claire Burch had endured a series of illnesses and wanted to escape the harsh climate of Manhattan.
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Claire Burch gained insight and inspiration from insanity and the often unexpected behavior associated with it.
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Claire Burch produced documentaries on noted cultural figures such as James Baldwin, Timothy Leary and Country Joe McDonald.
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Claire Burch's last completed film was Elegy for the Naked Guy, about the life and death of Andrew Martinez, a well-known figure on the Berkeley campus in the mid-'90s who died in prison in 2007.
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Late in life Claire Burch suffered a stroke which took most of her vision, but she was able to retain enough sight to frame her subjects.
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At 18, Claire Burch married a soldier and the couple raised three children in Great Neck and Greenwich Village.
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Claire Burch underwent a traditional four-times-weekly Freudian analysis before switching to marijuana and LSD in the early 1970s.
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Claire Burch was a recreational marijuana user throughout her life.
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Claire Burch was fond of referring to the Collyer Brothers, a pair of New Yorkers who suffered from a fear of throwing anything away and filled their apartment from top to bottom.