Quote on Maya Angelou's new stamp isn't actually hers

Maya Angelou's new Forever stamp features a very lovely quote — unfortunately, it's not original to the beloved author and poet.

The stamp has a photo of Angelou and the quote "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song," a reference to her 1969 memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The Washington Post reports that the quote was first found in Joan Walsh Anglund's A Cup of Sun, a poetry collection for children published in 1967, using the word "he" instead of "it." The quote has long been attributed to Angelou, and a spokesman for the Postal Service said the Angelou family approved it for inclusion on the stamp.

Anglund told the Post this was the first she was hearing about the stamp, and said it was "interesting it would happen and already be printed and on her stamp." Anglund said she loves Angelou's work, and thinks it "easily happens sometimes that people hear something, and it's kind of going into your subconscious and people don't realize it." A spokesman for the Postal Service said if they had known about the issue earlier, a different quote would have been used.

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