Carrie Jacobs Bond, whose art songs are among the most popular by an
American, was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, on August 11, 1862. Coming
from a musical family, she was given music instruction early, and made
appearances as a child-prodigy pianist. After marrying Dr. Frank L.
Bond, a physician, she went to live in Chicago where her husband died
suddenly, leaving her destitute. For a while she earned a living by
renting rooms, taking in sewing, and doing other menial jobs. Then she
began thinking of supplementing this meager income with the writing of
songs. To issue these compositions, she formed a modest publishing firm
in New York with funds acquired from her New York song recital; for a
long time her office was in a hall bedroom. Her first publication, just
before the end of the century, was _Seven Songs_, which included “I Love
You Truly” and “Just a Wearyin’ For You,” each of which she subsequently
published as separate pieces. In 1909 she achieved a formidable success
with the famous ballad, “The End of a Perfect Day,” of which more than
five million copies of sheet music were sold within a few years. Her
later songs added further both to her financial security and her
reputation. She was invited to give concerts at the White House,
received awards for achievement in music from various organizations, and
was singled out in 1941 by the Federation of Music Clubs as one of the
two outstanding women in the field of music. She died in Hollywood,
California, on December 28, 1946.
Carrie Jacobs Bond knew how to write a song that was filled with
sentiment without becoming cloying, that was simple without becoming
ingenuous, and which struck a sympathetic universal chord by virtue of
its mobile and expressive lyricism. Besides “I Love You Truly,” “Just a
Wearyin’ for You” and “The End of a Perfect Day,” her most famous songs
included “His Lullaby,” “Life’s Garden,” “I’ve Done My Work,” and “Roses
Are in Bloom.” Her songs are so popular that they have been often heard
in various transcriptions for salon orchestras and band.