Viral Quotes: Remark about a funeral: I approve of it (attrib Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar 1887; attrib Mark Twain 1938)

[Arnold Zwicky]

On May 7, 2011, at 1:20 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Viral Quotes: Remark about a funeral: I approve of it (attrib
>              Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar 1887; attrib Mark Twain 1938)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I didn‚t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.
>
> A recent CNN article contained the saying above with an attribution to
> Mark Twain. Some bloggers and twitterers contended that this was a
> "real" Twain quote; unlike the Clarence-Darrow-like quip that was
> wrongly labeled a Twain quote.
>
> Here are two citations and a link to my analysis. Feedback appreciated.
>
> Cite: 1887, Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men by Samuel Arthur Bent,
> [Fifth Edition, Revised and Enlarged] Page 581, Ticknor & Company,
> Boston. (Google Books full view)
>
> Judge Hoar, being asked if he should attend Mr. Wendell Phillips‚s
> funeral, replied, "No, I am not invited, but I approve of it
> nevertheless."
>
>
> The earliest instance of the joke that I have located with an
> attribution to Mark Twain appeared in a humor magazine called "The
> Judge" in 1938. A reader identified as "James Wayle, of Milwaukee"
> wrote a letter to the editors of the periodical recounting a story
> about Twain:
>
> Cite: 1938 January, The Judge magazine, Page 11, Column 2, Volume 114
> [Jubilee Number], Judge Publishing Company, New York. (Google Books
> snippet, Verified on paper by a kind librarian)
>
> ... he writes to remind us that Mark Twain once refused to attend a
> noted politician‚s funeral. "But then," adds Mr. Wayle, "he wrote them
> a very nice letter explaining that he approved of it."
>
> http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/05/07/funeral-approved/
> http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/05/05/darrow-obituary/
>
> Garson
>
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