Louella D. Everett (17 October 1883–September 1967) was a poetry

anthologist In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...

and associate editor of the 11th and 12th editions of ''

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'', often simply called ''Bartlett's'', is an American reference work that is the longest-lived and most widely distributed collection of quotations. The book was first issued in 1855 and is currently in its 19th ...

'' (with

Christopher Morley Christopher Darlington Morley (May 5, 1890 – March 28, 1957) was an American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet. He also produced stage productions for a few years and gave college lectures.

). Morley described Everett as having done "the most laborious part of the work" for both editions. The 11th edition was the first to divide pages into two columns of quotes and was marked by a notable increase in number of women quotees: 303 out of a total of 2280 quotees (13.2%), compared to 92 of 1058 total quotees (8.6%) in the 10th edition. Everett started her collection and organization of verses as a teenager, eventually gathering more than "a hundred thousand poetic items ..filed and cross-indexed alphabetically." Between 1918 and 1960, she was a contributor to the

New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

, working in the "Queries and Answers" department to help readers find the sources of bits of verse. She was considered a "super sleuth of poetry fragments"'' who "was especially knowledgeable in popular light verse." At one time, her fame was such that she was the topic of a short piece in '' The New Yorker's'' The Talk of the Town. She also answered queries sent directly to her home address in her spare time. She said her entrance into the quotation business was "rather an accident", explaining, "One Sunday I read a reply to a question in a New York paper that was entirely wrong. I sent in the correct reply, and this was followed by other queries which I answered." Everett said she normally devoted herself to quotation queries at night, until 2 a.m. "I can do this work because I need only five hours of sleep every night" she said. She was born in

Middletown, New York Middletown is the largest Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in Orange County, New York, Orange County, New York, United States. It lies in New York's Hudson Valley region, near the Wallkill River and the foothills of the Shawangunk ...

and moved to Boston when she was 16. She married Charles H. Young in Philadelphia in 1907. They divorced in Boston before 1930 and she did not use her married name in her editing work. In addition to her quotation-finding work, Everett worked full-time as a public stenographer who typed medical papers. Furthermore, she published two poetry anthologies: ''The Cat in Verse'' (with Carolyn Wells) and ''Home and Holiday Verse''. A reporter for the ''Miami Herald'' reported on his visit to Everett's office, and described her as someone who "looks you straight in the eye and if you want to ask questions she tells you to fire away." Everett died in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

in 1967.

References

1883 births 1967 deaths 20th-century American poets American women poets 20th-century American women writers {{US-poet-1880s-stub