[Ads-l] Quote: I have nothing to declare except my genius (1910) attributed to Oscar Wilde

[Jonathan Lighter]

Nice work, Garson.

But surely Wilde, who had an outstanding sense of meter, would have said
"but" rather than the disyllabic "except"?

JL



On Mon, Jan 17, 2022 at 9:54 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Congratulations to researcher John Cooper. He has uncovered the
> earliest known evidence for the quotation in the subject line. He
> announced the discovery on his website "Oscar Wilde in America".
>
> https://oscarwildeinamerica.blog/2022/01/16/something-to-declare/
>
> The quotation appeared in 1910 within "The Oscar Wilde Calendar"
> compiled by Stuart Mason (pseudonym of  Christopher Sclater Millard
> according to Cooper). The calendar is accessible via HathiTrust. Here
> are the details for the citation.
>
> [ref] 1910, The Oscar Wilde Calendar: A Quotation from the Works of
> Oscar Wilde for Every Day in the Year with Some Unrecorded Sayings
> Selected by Stuart Mason, Quotation for January Four, Quote Page 7,
> Frank Palmer, London. (HathiTrust Full View) link [/ref]
>
>
> https://hdl.handle.net/2027/inu.32000001009895?urlappend=%3Bseq=13%3Bownerid=13510798897925460-17
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> At the New York Custom House: “I have nothing to declare except my genius.”
> [End excerpt]
>
> Previously, the earliest known evidence occurred in 1912 within "Oscar
> Wilde: A Critical Study" by Arthur Ransome.
>
> A Quote Investigator article about this quotation will be posted in
> the coming days (or weeks).
>
> Garson O'Toole
> QuoteInvestigator.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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