Follow-up #3 on Alain Locke quote: message from Stephen Goranson

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Here's follow-up #3. World Cat shows various dates for Locke's book (1925, 1968, 1992, 1997).  I'll now refrain from further speculation as to what happened until I do some further checking, but one thing is presently clear:
If the Harlem/big apple quote really was made by Locke (as opposed to being hoked up by someone and falsely attributed to him), I do not yet have the exact reference.

My thanks to all who have helped me on this matter. This is much appreciated.

Gerald Cohen

________________________________

From: goranson at duke.edu [mailto:goranson at duke.edu]
Sent: Sun 6/14/2009 4:28 AM
To: Cohen, Gerald Leonard
Subject: offlist Re: [ADS-L] "Big Apple" revisited... -- locating Alain Locke's "c. 1919" quote (1925)



Hello, offlist,
I may be mistaken, so I write offlist, but that 1925 book appears to have been
reprinted in 1968 (rather than or in addition to 1992?). The 1968 ed.
is Google snippet searchable. That gives "here in Manhattan" as page 6 but not the
sentence. On page 6 of the paper book I do not find the sentence. Do
you mean a different page or edition? Also FWIW, according to Acknowledgments, much--but
not all--of the book content appeared in March 1925 Survey Graphic.
best,
Stephen Goranson

Quoting Gerald Cohen <gcohen at MST.EDU>:

>    Alain Locke¹s quote of ³c. 1919² turns out to be from his 1925 book
> (reprinted 1995) _The New Negro_.  I am indebted for this information to
> Kathleen Bethel (African American Studies Librarian, Northwestern University
> Library) and am very grateful for her assistance. Many thanks.
>
>    The quote is introduced by ³Here in Manhattan² and says "Harlem is the
> precious fruit of the Garden of Eden, the big apple."
>
>    This is the earliest attestation thus far of ³big apple² in specific
> reference to Harlem, but as far as I can tell, it is otherwise not
> significant.  By 1925 ³the big apple² had already been appearing in print in
> other references. For example, in 1924 there were six  ³Around the Big
> Apple² columns in the turf newspaper OEMorning Telegraph,¹ and ³the big
> apple² had already been applied in print (one time) to Los Angeles and
> several times in the meaning of ³big shot/very important person or thing.²
>
>    I still need to check which page of Locke¹s book the quote appears on.
> And I need to be sure that it appears in the 1925 edition as well as the
> 1992 reprinting (although I expect no problems here).
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
  <snip>

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