Origin of "Back to Square One"

[Page Stephens]

If I were capable of shame I might feel guilty about this but Fred's note
invites this response: I hope they are beginning their investigation at
square one.

Page Stephens

> [Original Message]
> From: Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: 6/9/2005 7:23:28 AM
> Subject: Origin of "Back to Square One"
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Origin of "Back to Square One"
>
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>
> The OED has launched a high-profile appeals list directed at eliciting
> antedatings and etymological discoveries for a small roster of important
> terms, in conjuntion with a forthcoming BBC television show.  One of the
> items on the list is "back to square one" (1960).  JSTOR yields the
> following antedating, which is a very interesting one because it makes the
> provenance of the phrase quite clear:
>
> "The writer ... has the problem of maintaining the interest of a reader
> who is being always sent back to square one in a sort of intellectual game
> of snakes and ladders."
>         _Economic Journal_, volume 62, page 411 (1952)
>
> Fred R. Shapiro
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
> Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
>   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
> Yale Law School                             forthcoming
> e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------