"curl up with a good book"

[Geoffrey Nunberg]

I've been trying to find out when people started talking about
"curling up with a good book." The phrase doesn't show up in the MOA
collection or the UVa mod. Eng. text collection, and the earliest
cite I've been able to find is from the NYT, Aug 29, 1926: "We read
that he [Gene Tunny] takes a day off from training and curls up with
a good book." But I'd have thought this goes back further than that.

Geoff Nunberg