Modern Proverb: Life is just one damn thing after another (slight antedating 1909 July 20)

Sat Mar 20 00:25:15 UTC 2010

Some additional thoughts:

Hubbard and Calvert certainly knew each other. If Calvert wrote it, it
would have been in The Open Road, which is not in GB except for one issue.

Hubbard, through the Roycrofters Shops, would sell epigrams, and his
books would indicate the price next to the epigrams.

DanG

On 3/19/2010 5:05 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
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> Subject:      Modern Proverb: Life is just one damn thing after another (slight
>                antedating 1909 July 20)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Life is just one damned thing after another.
>
> This quote appears in the online Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (also
> Modern and Concise). A citation is given to the writer Elbert Hubbard
> in the periodical Philistine dated December 1909. The copy of the
> December issue of Philistine in Google Books contains the phrase with
> a minor difference: Life is just one damn thing after another. I was
> unable to find the phrase with "damned" in the December issue.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=IhrZAAAAMAAJ&q=damn#v=snippet&
>
> The Yale Book of Quotations contains a citation for the phrase "Life
> is just one darn thing after another" dated 1909 July 22 in the
> Washington Post along with the comment that the cite "indicates that
> the expression predated Hubbard."
>
> Immediately below are three cites: a newspaper article published two
> days earlier on 1909 July 20, an advertisement in the July issue of a
> monthly periodical called "The Practical Printer", and a book
> published in 1909. In the book the phrase is presented as a motto on a
> wall.
>
> Citation: 1909 July 20, Anaconda Standard, Page 6, Column 3, Anaconda,
> Montana. (NewspaperArchive)
>
> After the Thaw inquiry, the Sutton investigation. As One pessimistic
> philosopher puts it: "Life is just one damn thing after another."
>
>
> Citation: 1909 July, The Practical Printer, Advertisement title, Page
> 107, Vol 11, No. 7, Inland Type Foundry, Saint Louis. (Google Books
> full view)
>
> "LIFE IS ONE DARN THING AFTER ANOTHER"
> Manifold books are here to stay. The printer may as well get busy and
> learn how to handle the profitable line.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=lJHPAAAAMAAJ&q=darn#v=snippet&q=darn&f=false
>
>
> Citation: 1909, The Concentrations of Bee by Lilian Bell, Page 241,
> Grosset&  Dunlap, New York. (Google Books full view)
>
> "Bob has a motto on his wall which says 'Life is just one damned thing
> after another!'" said Jimmie. But I refused to smile. I was too
> distinctly annoyed.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=whQYAAAAYAAJ&q=damned+thing#v=snippet&
>
>
> After July 1909 I found several more citations in 1909. Also there are
> some matching items in the Google Books database in snippet view mode
> with uncertain dates. This item may have a 1909 publication date.
>
> Citation: Circa 1909???, History of the Class of 1903, Yale College,
> Page 175, Yale University. (Google Books snippet view only)
>
> Since then the daily round has continued in much the same manner as
> formerly, for, after all, 'Life is only one damned thing after
> another.' My title has been changed and now I am called 'betterment
> recorder.'
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=BHUWAAAAIAAJ&q=damned#search_anchor
>
>
> The word darn and the term d--n are sometimes substituted for damn.
> The power of the word to shock listeners is recorded in the following
> cite which also shows the proliferation of the phrase.
>
> Citation: 1909 October 24, San Antonio Light and Gazette, Gambler's
> Motto His Pulpit Theme, Page 26 (NewspaperArchive numbering), San
> Antonio, Texas.  (NewspaperArchive)
>
> "Life is just one damn thing after another," said the Rev. Dr. Percy
> S. Grant, rector of the Church of the Ascension, Fifth avenue and
> Tenth street, as a preface to a talk yesterday. Members of the
> congregation sat bolt upright, and some gasped in decorous
> astonishment. A deaf woman in the front pew took down her black
> trumpet from her right ear and refused to listen. Afterward curiosity
> overcame her and the trumpet went up again.
> Dr. Grant had received a postal card with the words quoted above early
> in the week, and the cynical sentiment of the missive so aroused his
> indignation that the rector preached against its acceptance in his
> sermon.
>
>
> The following 1910 citation is the first attribution that I found. But
> who is Bruce Calvert?
>
> Citation: 1910 March, Wood Craft, Page 167, Column 2, The Gardner
> Publishing Co., Cleveland. (Hathi Trust full view)
>
> "I would like to have my shop free from accident of every kind, both
> to operators and to stock, but I don't suppose that state of things
> will be actually brought to pass. It's too much like a dream of the
> next world to find something in this one which is not like Bruce
> Calvert's idea of life which he says is: 'Just one damned thing after
> another.'"
>
> http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ptsearch?id=mdp.39015010724832&q1=damned
> Permanent Hathi URL:
> http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015010724832
>
>
> The terms substituted for damn in the following 1910 citation are entertaining.
>
> Citation: 1910 October 15, The National Provisioner, Chicago Section,
> Page 34, Food Trade Publishing Co., New York. (Google Books full view)
>
> It is better to be a "has been" than a "never was," says Uncle Joseph,
> and adds "What is life, anyway, but one doggoned, golbinged, dodrotted
> thing after another !!!***???!!!???!! anyhow?"
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=BfXmAAAAMAAJ&q=golbinged#v=snippet&
>
> Garson O'Toole
>
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