Bessie Anderson Stanley

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Elisabeth-Anne "Bessie" Anderson Stanley (born before 1900) is the author of the poem Success (What is success? or What Constitutes Success?), which is often incorrectly misattributed[1] to Ralph Waldo Emerson[2][3][4] or Robert Louis Stevenson).[5]

Her poem, written in 1904 for a contest held in Brown Book Magazine,[6] by George Livingston Richards Co. of Boston, Massachusetts[2] reads:

He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much;
Who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children;
Who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
Who has never lacked appreciation of Earth's beauty or failed to express it;
Who has left the world better than he found it,
Whether an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
Who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had;
Whose life was an inspiration;
Whose memory a benediction.

The poem was in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations in the 1930s or 1940s but was mysteriously removed in the 1960s.[6] It was again included in the seventeenth edition. However, it does appear in a 1911 book, More Heart Throbs Volume 2 on pages 1-2.[7]

Ann Landers (and her sister Abby) are also said to have misattributed the poem to Emerson and her concession to a public correction is in The Ann Landers Encyclopedia.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Such as in this memorial: Max Kreger, a memorial, Sandusky District Library, Sandusky, Michigan
  2. ^ a b "What Constitutes Success": A $250 Prize Story by a Lincoln Woman Lincoln Sentinel, November 30, 1905 (archived by Bill and Diana Sowers on Lincoln County, Kansas Genealogy & History website)
  3. ^ In Search of Success, extensive research by Dirk H. Kelder (personal website)
  4. ^ Success Quote - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Jone Johnson Lewis on "Transcendentalists" website
  5. ^ Reader's Digest Admits Mistake, Lincoln Sentinel-Republican, November 5, 1953 (archived by Bill and Diana Sowers on Lincoln County, Kansas Genealogy & History website)
  6. ^ a b c The Truth behind the Poem "Success" (email exchange between Robin Olson and Bethanne Larson, Stanley's great-granddaughter, on "Robin's Web" website)
  7. ^ Grosset & Dunlap of New York, ©1911 by Chapple Publishing Company Ltd. of Boston, MA (from Success: Finding a Gem among the Litter in the Literature, Chuck Anastasia, Coolspark blog, February 24, 2007)
  • "Success", Mila Tasseva for The Ralph Waldo Emerson Society, April 15, 2003

[edit] See also

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