figurative "bootstraps" (1834)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

Is there any reason to think that there is any relation between the
Muenchhausen story and the early references to one's lifting himself by his
bootstraps? Couldn't both impossibilities have been imagined de novo?
Actually the bootstrap version seems more apt (to me) since pulling up on
one's bootstraps was a conventional practice AFAIK (in putting on one's
boots). Pardon me if I'm missing something again.

-- Doug Wilson