Called "The Poet of the People" for his heartwarming, down-to-earth writing, Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959) was born on this day in Birmingham, England and settled with his family in Detroit, Michigan when he was nearly 12.

"It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home," he once wrote.

The creator of over twenty volumes of poetry, including Just Folks (1917) and Heap O' Livin! (1916), Guest wrote over 11,000 poems. The versatile writer was syndicated in over 300 U.S. newspapers, had his own weekly radio program on NBC (1931-1942), and his own television show, A Guest in Your Home, in 1951.

He once explained, "I just take simple every day things that happen to me and figure that they probably happen to al lot of other people and I make simple rhymes out of 'em and people seem to like 'em."

An optimist who celebrate life's passionate colors, the likeable poet wrote about ordinary people and experiences. A friend of inventors Henry Ford and Charles Kettering, Guest once observed: "Life is a gift to be used every day, Not to be smothered and hidden away."

"Be a friend," he wrote. "You don't need money; Just a disposition sunny."

Success is up to you.