Locke's Harlem/big apple quote --- what might have happened

[Gerald Cohen]

After stumbling on Locke's Harlem/big apple quote, I might do well to stay
silent on the subject for a few days.  But this gets to be compulsive.

I think I see what might have happened.  First, let's assume the quote is
non-existent for "c. 1919" since there's thus far no evidence for it at an
early date.

A while back Barry Popik drew my attention to a 1990 letter to the editor of
the NY Times by Geraldine L. Daniels. It appeared in the Sunday NY Times
Aug. 26, 1990, Sec. 4, p. 18/5-6, under the title 'Harlem Renaissance gave
us "Big Apple." The item noted that the writer was Member of Assembly, 70th
district, NY.

That letter not only gives the Harlem/big apple quotation and attributes it
to Locke.  The letter also sees this quotation as the source of NYC's
nickname 'The Big Apple.'

Here's the key portion of the letter:
Œ...According to Harlem griots (oral historians), the clue to the
mystery is Harlem.  It is my understanding that Alain Locke,
professor of philosophy at Howard University, originated the term
during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920¹s.
   ŒDr. Locke, a graduate of Harvard University and the first black
Rhodes Scholar to attend Oxford University, used the term to depict
Harlem as the precious fruit in the Garden of Eden, an oasis for the
literary, musical and painting talents of oppressed black American
intellectuals. ...'

Note that Ms. Daniels doesn't give Locke's statement as a quote.  *She*
(relying on the griots) is the one who interprets how Locke felt about
Harlem, and very possibly she is correct in this.  But that's not the same
as asserting that those were his very words.

Add to this picture the dates of the books of African-American quotations. I
thus far have information on three such books, and they all appeared after
1990. There are two more which may have the quote.  One is post-1990, and
the other--the only one that can upset this line of reasoning--is 1989. Ms.
Bethel said the book is in storage and she'll check it next week.  Meanwhile
she checked several other books of African-American quotes, and they do not
include the Locke quote.  In fact, several don't include Locke at all.

Also, note the source of Ms. Daniel's information: oral historians. Again,
they may have been correct in their remembrance of Locke, but that doesn't
mean that any of them asserted he uttered the specific quote which has now
been attributed to him. And there is no date attached to when Locke might
have described Harlem as The Big Apple. If he did so during the 1930's or
1940's this would be unexceptional.

So (and this is my interpretation du jour), it is possible that the prestige
of the Assemblywoman plus the prestige of the NY Times plus Alain Locke's
prestige plus interest in the origin of "The Big Apple" all combined to
raise Ms. Daniel's letter-to-the-editor to the level of a scholarly source
in the eyes of at least one compiler of quotations.  And no doubt in good
faith, the assertion about Locke's regarding Harlem as the Garden of Eden,
the big apple, was misinterpreted to mean that he actually used these
specific words. And the quote was produced from this.

 And once the first book of quotations (whichever it was) picked up on it,
that provided additional evidence for the subsequent writers of quotation
books that the quote must be bona fide.

Then, lo and behold, it turned up in Rawson's and Miner's book of quotations
(sans source), where Marc Miller of Ephemera Press found it and reasonably
assumed it was genuine, and from there it made its way into the Wall Street
Journal article.  There's a snowball effect here. Each time the quote is
mentioned uncritically in a new work, the assumption of its being bona fide
is increased.

But the pesky question remains, "Where's the evidence?" and I'm grateful to
ads-l for helping to raise it.

Gerald Cohen

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