Bessie Anderson Stanley


Bessie Anderson Stanley was an American writer, the author of the poem "Success", which is often incorrectly attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson or Robert Louis Stevenson.
She was born in Newton, Iowa, and married Arthur Jehu Stanley in 1900, living thereafter in Lincoln, Kansas. Her poem was written in 1904 for a contest held in Brown Book Magazine, by George Livingston Richards Co. of Boston, Massachusetts Mrs. Stanley submitted the words in the form of an essay, rather than as a poem. The competition was to answer the question "What is success?" in 100 words or less. Mrs. Stanley won the first prize of $250.
Written in verse form, it reads:
  • This line is inscribed on Stanley's gravestone (source, 2004 photography found at chebucto.ns.ca subdirectory Philosophy subdirectory Sui-Generis sub directory Emerson file monument dot jpg
The poem was in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations in the 1930s or 1940s but was removed in the 1960s. 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.

Misattribution

Ann Landers are also said to have misattributed the poem to Emerson and her concession to a public correction is in The Ann Landers Encyclopedia.

Personal life

Bessie Anderson Stanley died in 1952, aged 73. The verse is inscribed on her gravestone in Lincoln Cemetery, Kansas.