On 04/07/05, Santosh Helekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- Gabe Menezes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > RESPONSE: I Googled footprints and got a different > > result! :- > > > > Gabe, > > Margaret Fishback Powers won the copyright for this > poem. Please see the following for the full story: > http://www.zondervan.com/pathways/archive/volume1/issue3/first_steps.htm > > Cheers, > > Santosh
RESPONSE: Hello not so fast! I should have copied a bit more from the link; http://www.footprints-inthe-sand.com/ ................Mary wrote 'Footprints' in 1936 when she was very young and knew nothing of copyrighting. For many years handwritten copies were distributed by Mary to those who needed something to give them comfort at a low point in their lives. It was sometime after this that friends of Mary saw it in print and wondered why she wasn't given credit for writing it. An attorney at that time told her that it would be very hard to prove her the author since it had been used by many publishers of religious materials and greeting cards. Discouraged she didn't pursue it any further. In 1984 while cleaning out the garage to prepare to move from her house, in a small suitcase, among her other poems, she rediscovered a very old handwritten copy that she thought was lost. It was one of the copies Mary had made and dated 1939, just three years after she wrote the original. Later that year the U.S. copyright office awarded her a copyright for 'Footprints in the Sand' 48 years after it was written. It was another 11 years before her handwritten copy was authenticated by a forensic specialist as to its age. Margaret Fishback-Powers and many others have tried to falsely claim authorship, but none can show significant proof such as this. -- Cheers, Gabe Menezes. London, England