'Doing the little things better each day'

 

“Agreat idea is usually original to more than one discoverer. Great ideas comewhen the world needs them. Great ideas surround the world's ignorance and pressfor admission.” – Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

Born in Boston on Aug. 31, 1844 Phelps began writing as a young girl and was noted forher “gift for telling stories.”   Onesource noted, "She spun amazing yarns for the children she played with.  And her schoolmates talked with vividinterest of the stories she used to improvise for their entertainment.”  

 

One of America’s most popular 19th century writers, she wrote hundreds of short stories, 57 volumes offiction and poetry and many essays.  She challenged the prevailing view that a woman's place andfulfillment resided only in the home and depicted women succeeding as physicians, ministers, artists and, ofcourse, writers. 

 

Also widely sought after as a speaker,she was the first woman to present a lecture series at Boston University (in1876) on the topic “Representative Modern Fiction.”

 

“It is not the straining for great things that is mosteffective," she said of her success. "It is doing the little thingsbetter and better every day.”

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