[Ads-l] Oscar Wilde Quote

Shapiro, Fred fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Fri Nov 25 15:59:05 UTC 2016


In the Yale Book of Quotations I source the quote "Work is the curse of the drinking classes" to Oscar Wilde, Quoted in Frank Harris, Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions (1916).  I now believe, however, that there are earlier occurrences not attributed to Wilde.  I would welcome help in finding the earliest occurrence in newspaper databases, book databases, etc.


Fred Shapiro

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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