Famous quotation about the weather in San Francisco (Duluth in 1900) and a mystery volume with restricted access in Google Books

[Garson O'Toole]

George Thompson wrote:
> *The life of Mr. James Quin, comedian. With the history of the stage from
> his commencing actor to his retreat to Bath.  L*ondon, MDCCLXVI. [1766].
>
> This is in the 18th C Collections Online.  The words "summer" and "july"
> seem to not appear in the text; the word "winter" appears 3 or 4 times, but
> not in this context.

Many thanks for checking this George. This suggests that the details
of the weather joke were added to the reprint of the "The Life of Mr.
James Quin, Comedian" after the original 1766 publication.

The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance says that James Quin
lived from 1693 to 1766. Worldcat says that the reprint of "The Life
of Mr. James Quin" was published in 1887.

In the Google Books copy of "The Life of Mr. James Quin" the
Supplement section begins on page 65 and the weather joke is on page
100 near the end of the volume.

http://books.google.com/books?id=6FwLAAAAIAAJ&q=supplement#v=snippet&
http://books.google.com/books?id=6FwLAAAAIAAJ&q=%22last+winter%22#v=snippet&

The letter mentioning the joke by Quin is dated 1789 more than two
decades after his death.

Garson

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