'Doing the little things better each day'

 

“A great idea is usually original to more than one discoverer. Great ideas come when the world needs them. Great ideas surround the world's ignorance and press for admission.” – Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

Born in Boston on Aug. 31, 1844 Phelps began writing as a young girl and was noted for her “gift for telling stories.”   One source noted, "She spun amazing yarns for the children she played with.  And her schoolmates talked with vivid interest 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 of fiction and poetry and many essays.  She challenged the prevailing view that a woman's place and fulfillment resided only in the home and depicted women succeeding as physicians, ministers, artists and, of course, writers. 

 

Also widely sought after as a speaker, she was the first woman to present a lecture series at Boston University (in 1876) on the topic “Representative Modern Fiction.”

 

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