A patron called me at the desk the other night asking if I knew anything about a “Merry Browne” whom the patron had found a quote on google by. After a good 15 minutes of fruitless searching, I found nothing, and put out a stumper to the Library Reference listserv. Thanks to responses from Laura Ewald of Greenville College and Marcine McCulley of the Rockwall County Library, I found out that she had several books published from what was apparently her own organization, the “Merry Browne Institute of Ontology” (now defunct).
The truth about life by Merry Browne (Unknown Binding – 1971)
The ladder of life by Merry Browne (Unknown Binding – 1971)
The truth about life: Textbook by Merry Browne (Unknown Binding – 1971)
Advanced seven steps to truth about life,: With counseling process self analysis checklist and instruction sheet of the Merry Browne Institute of Ontology by Merry Browne
What’s wierd is that less than 10 libraries in the country actually have these books, yet a google search for “Merry Browne” quotes brings up 2,320 hits!
Amazing. An author practically no one can actually read, yet anyone can quote. Sometimes I wonder about the value of Google. Here is an example of how the web has made it appear that something is important because of the number of hits it brings up (her quotes) when in fact it seems as if this was merely a self-congratulatory excercise on the behalf of Merry Browne and her institute (the few holdings in print available.)
Lost in the stacks 
This was a great help to me. I really love her quote regarding expectations of others, but could not find any other information about her. Her books are out of print according to Amazon.
I find it interesting that the quotes you find from her on Google are “self-helpy” life lessons, but Ontology is a metaphysical branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of reality. Maybe one day I’ll come across her book and be able to give a report.