Maya Angelou Forever Stamp Quote /4/Not be Hers

In a recent turn of events book author Joan Walsh Anglund claims that she wrote the quote before Maya Angelou.

A number of people associated with literature were expected today at the unveiling ceremony for the new stamp that has been created in order to honor the late author Maya Angelou. Among the audience today was the first lady Michelle Obama.

The Angelou ‘Forever’ stamp reads her quote “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” However it /4/never have been her quote as book author Joan Walsh Anglund has claimed that the quote is hers. 

On Monday night Anglund from her Connecticut home stated to Washington Post that the quote on the Angelou ‘Forever’ stamp is in fact hers. The quote appears in one of her book of poems “A Cup of Sun” which was published in 1967. The only things changed in the quote on the stamp are the pronouns and the punctuation. 

Mark Saunders the spokesman for the Postal Service stated that he had never heard of the Anglund quote. Plus he also stated that the Postal Service used Angelou’s widely recognized quote to help build an immediate connection between her image and her 1969 nationally recognized autobiography ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’.

Moreover last year President Obama had used this quote and referred it to Angelou at the presentation of the 2013 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal. 

Joan Walsh Anglund has also hasn’t heard anything about the Angelou stamp. Plus she stated that she hasn’t read all of Angelou’s things but she loves her things. She also said that she loves all the things Angelou has ever done and that she hopes the stamp is successful.