The poem can unquestionably be credited to Claire MacMurray who penned it for the Cleveland Plain Dealer in November 1939. No earlier appearance is known and until such is found, there it rests. But wait (I hear you think), she attributed it to a Mrs. Amos Pinchot. Quote Investigator states that "a cite in 1942 claimed that she [Gertrude (Minturn) Pinchot] denied the attribution" and that (therefore, presumably) "no decisive candidate for authorship has yet emerged". Ouch! Gertrude died in May 1939. It would have been difficult for her to deny the November 1939 attribution.
On Apr 1, 2016, at 4:28 PM, Dan Asimov <asimov@msri.org> wrote:
Yes, Jim, I read that and many more equally inconclusive web pages.
On Apr 1, 2016, at 1:25 PM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote: