There Is No Unbelief
Mrs. Case’s article in the Free Press in 1905 by no means settled the question of the poem’s authorship, and she was kept busy defending her claim until the day of her death. This she always did most vigorously. In 1908 she had a spirited controversy with a magazine which credited her poem to Bulwer and which refused to make any correction until she employed a lawyer and threatened to bring suit for damages.
And the controversy has outlived her. On January 15, 1915, the Chicago Record–Herald printed the poem, crediting it to Mrs. Case. Some readers objected, and a few days later the paper apologized for its mistake and explained that the poem was really written by Owen Meredith. Then Mrs. Case’s friends unlimbered their batteries, and in the end a second apology was forthcoming and the credit restored to Mrs. Case. This is but one example of the merry dance which the question of the poem’s authorship has led anthologists and editors for many years. Even in so recent and carefully edited a collection as Songs of Challenge, published in 1922, it is credited to Owen Meredith!
Let it be hoped that the discovery of the poem in the Free Press, under Mrs. Case’s name, will settle the controversy once for all, and that her child will never again be snatched from its fond mother’s arms.
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