Life of Riley (1918)

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sun, 10 Sep 2006, Dave Wilton wrote:

> OED has 1919.
>
> The Syracuse Herald, 29 July 1918, final page, (a soldier named Kennedy
> writing about life in the Army), in Newspaperarchive.com:
>
> Note that this predates the 1919 song by H. Pease that is suggested as the
> origin of the phrase. It's also interesting in that it is spelled "Riley"
> and not "Reilly," which is normally considered to be the original form.

Alright, I won't put down the usefulness of the Hartford Courant for
linguistic research any more, as it yields this great antedating that
strengthens Dave's point above that the 1919 song was not the origin:

1911 _Hartford Courant_ 6 Dec. 1 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)  The
famous wild cow of Cromwell is no more.  After "living the life of Riley"
for over a year, successfully evading the pitchforks and the bullets of
the farmers, whose fields she ravaged in all four seasons, the cow today
fell a victim to a masterfully arranged trap, and tonight lies skinned and
torn into quarters at the the home of Jesse Canfield in Rocky Hill.

Fred Shapiro


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