WASHINGTON — The Postal Service issued a new limited edition “forever” stamp Tuesday, honoring the late Maya Angelou, but it carries a quote that apparently originated elsewhere.
The stamp dedicated Tuesday includes the quotation, “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
Children’s book author Joan Walsh Anglund told The Washington Post the quotation is in her book of poems “A Cup of Sun,” published in 1967. It
has been attributed to Angelou before. Last year, while presenting the National Medal of the Arts and Humanities, President Barack Obama attributed the quote to Angelou while honoring other artists.
Postal Service spokesman David Partenheimer said the quote “provides a connection to her first memior, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.’ “
“The sentence held great meaning for her, and she is publicly identified with its popularity,” Partenheimer said.
