If You Would be Happy

by Ruth Stout

2021 Reprint of the 1962 Edition. Facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. If You Would be Happy by Ruth Stout is what a self-help book should be: tart, down-to-earth, realistic and sound advice from a woman who lived well and wasn't shy about sharing ideas that worked. Having helped thousands of gardeners to achieve success the easy way (in How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back), Ruth Stout now has something for anyone pursuing the age-old search for happiness. She reveals in down-to-earth fashion how you can be happy in your daily life here and now. Are you plagued by a constant swarm of resentments, anxieties, irritations? Are you often bored, lonely, depressed, beset by a chronic sense of dissatisfaction? Do you despair of anything ever being any better unless everyone around you changes-perhaps, unless the whole world is reformed? Then read this book!!!!

190 pages, Paperback

Published September 2, 2021

About the author

Ruth Imogen Stout was the fifth child of Quaker parents John Wallace Stout and Lucetta Elizabeth Todhunter Stout. Her younger brother Rex Stout, an author, was famous for the Nero Wolfe detective stories.

Stout moved to New York when she was 18 and was employed at various times as a nurse, bookkeeper, secretary, business manager, and factory worker. She coordinated lectures and debates and she also owned a small tea shop in Greenwich Village. She worked for a fake mind-reading act.

In 1923, she accompanied fellow Quakers to Russia to assist in famine relief. She met and married Alfred Rossiter in June 1929. In March 1930, the couple moved to Poverty Hollow at Redding Ridge, on the outskirts of Redding, Connecticut.

Ruth continued to use her maiden name as her pen name and Rossiter as her official name. Fred, a Columbia-trained psychologist, followed his passion for wood turning and subsequently became known for his wooden bowls. Ruth decided to try her luck at gardening, and in the spring of 1930, she planted her first garden

Reviews

[Diane E. Miessler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Ruth Stout’s writing - like talking to a wise, feisty aunt. Her wisdom mirrors lots of paths I’ve explored - mindfulness, cognitive therapy, simplifying life. Fun read, full of good insights.

[Jennifer Rossetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

3..25