Motto: live a fast life, die young and be a beautiful corpse (Irene L. Luce 1920 August 25)

Sat Apr 14 16:32:20 UTC 2012

_Knock on any Door_ is an outstanding urban novel in the Farrell tradition.
 It's utterly forgotten, like Budd Schulberg's naturalistic boxing novel,
_The Harder They Fall_.  (It can't be because Bogart starred in the screen
versions of both.)

Great sleuthing, Garson!

JL

On Sat, Apr 14, 2012 at 12:25 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Motto: live a fast life, die young and be a beautiful
> corpse
>               (Irene L. Luce 1920 August 25)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Apr 14, 2012, at 11:41 AM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>
> > The motto: "Live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse" is
> > often connected to the actor James Dean who died at 24. The Yale Book
> > of Quotations and The Quote Verifier both cite a 1947 book by Willard
> > Motley containing the statement: "Live fast, die young, and have a
> > good-looking corpse!"
>
> This reference to "Knock on any Door" shows up in various places on the =
> web, e.g. =
> http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2010/02/real-origin-of-live-fast-die-young-=
> and.html, which also observes this trivium concerning the respective =
> ethnicities of Motley and his (anti-)hero, Nick Romano (played by Bo's =
> father John Derek in Ray's movie, with an attorney played by Bogart):  =20=
>
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> Back then, it was unusual for an African-American author to write a book =
> in which the central characters were white. But Motley was ahead of his =
> time in terms of color-blind thinking and the book became a popular =
> bestseller.
> When some color-sensitive critics complained about a =93Negro=94 writing =
> about white folks, Motley responded: =93My race is the human race.=94
>
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>
> As for the variations in the line, I find the "leave a =
> good-looking/beautiful corpse" more natural (as well as more familiar) =
> than its apparently more authentic "be" or "have" variants.  I think of =
> my future corpse (regardless of its beauty quotient) as something I'll =
> be leaving rather than being or having.  It is a metaphysical question, =
> to be sure, and relates to the fact that it's notoriously difficult to =
> attach tense markers to pronouns.
>
> LH
>
>
>
>
> =20
>
> >=20
> > Here are some earlier instances of the general expression.
> >=20
> > Cite: 1920 August 25, Riverside Daily Press, Did Not Want to Be
> > Bothered with Husband, [Dateline: Los Angeles, Aug. 25], Page 2,
> > Column 4, Riverside, California. (GenealogyBank)
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > Letters from Mrs. Irene L. Luce, to Oscar B. Luce, won a divorce for
> > the husband here today.
> > "I can't be bothered with a husband," one letter said.
> > "I intend to live a fast life, die young and be a beautiful corpse,"
> > Mrs. Luce wrote.
> > [End excerpt]
> >=20
> > Cite: 1921, University of Washington Plays: First Series, Selected and
> > Edited by Glenn Hughes, "These Wild Young People" by J. M. O'Connor,
> > Jr., Start Page 49, Quote Page 59, (Quote also found on pages 53,
> > 55-56, and 60), University of Washington Press, Seattle. (Google Books
> > full view)
> > http://books.google.com/books?id=3DEBQuAAAAYAAJ&q=3Dcorpse#v=3Dsnippet&
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > Cyrillo. What do you consider wild?
> > Patricia. Oh, to play around and be petted a lot, smoke in public and
> > all that. I read in a paper once about a man who got a divorce from
> > his wife on the strangest grounds. She said she couldn't be bothered
> > with a husband, intended to lead a fast life, die young, and be a
> > beautiful corpse. I think that's a fascinating philosophy. It's my
> > program.
> > [End excerpt]
> >=20
> > Cite: 1924 January 9, Monmouth College Oracle [Newspaper of Monmouth
> > College], Creed of a College Man, Page 4, Column 2, Monmouth,
> > Illinois. (NewspaperArchive)
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > Creed of a College Man.
> > Live a fast life, die young, and have a good-looking corpse.
> > [End excerpt]
> >=20
> > Cite: 1924 July 08, The Kingston Daily Freeman, The Office Cat by
> > Junius, The Young Folks' Creed, Column 4, Page 7, Kingston, New York.
> > (NewspaperArchive)
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > The Young Folks' Creed
> > Live a fast life, die young, and  have a good-looking corpse.
> > [End excerpt]
> >=20
> > Cite: 1924 July 12, The Charleroi Mail, [Freestanding quotation in a
> > box adjacent to front page banner], Charleroi, Pennsylvania.
> > (NewspaperArchive)
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > THE YOUNG FOLKS' CREED.
> > Live a fast life, die young, and have a good-looking corpse.
> > [End excerpt]
> >=20
> >=20
> > In May 1925 the phrase "live well" was substituted for "live a fast
> > life" in a variant called "Patty's creed".
> >=20
> > Cite: 1925 May 2, Riverside Daily Press, Tower of Jewels, Page 14,
> > Column 7, Riverside, California. (GenealogyBank)
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > Little Patty's creed: Live well, die young, and have a good-looking =
> corpse.
> > [End excerpt]
> >=20
> >=20
> > By July 1925 the shorter phrase "Live fast" was sometimes used instead
> > of "Live a fast life".
> >=20
> > Cite: 1925 July 31, The Rockford Morning Star, Star Dust, Page 10.
> > Column 2, Rockford, Illinois. (GenealogyBank)
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > A CREED
> > Live fast, die young, and be a good looking corpse.
> > [End excerpt]
> >=20
> >=20
> > A variant in 1930 substituted "live hard" for "live fast".
> >=20
> > Cite: 1930, Only Saps Work: A Ballyhoo for Racketeering by Courtenay
> > Terrett, GB Page 26, The Vanguard Press, New York. (Google Books
> > snippet view; Not yet verified on paper; Data may be inaccurate)
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > There was an old cowboy proverb (it is probably forgotten in these
> > lizzie days of pure-bred Herefords, irrigated alfalfa fields, and
> > Sears, Roebuck riding breeches) that it was glorious to "live hard,
> > die young, and make a hell of a good-looking corpse."
> > [End excerpt]
> >=20
> >=20
> > In 1947 the book "Knock on Any Door" by Willard Motley was reviewed in
> > the New York Times and the philosophy of the main character, Nick
> > Romano, was reproduced for newspaper readers.
> >=20
> > Cite: 1947 May 4, New York Times, Disciple of Dreiser by Charles Lee,
> > [Book review of "Knock on Any Door" by Willard Motley], Page BR3,
> > Column 2, New York. (ProQuest)
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > How does handsome Nick react? Conscious of what reform school did to
> > him, conscious of his wicked ways, he is still enamored of easy money
> > and easy sex. He deliberately rejects conscience, boasts of his creed
> > - "live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse" - achieves
> > all three objectives.
> > [End excerpt]
> >=20
> >=20
> > In 1949 the expression appeared in advertisements for the movie based
> > on the book.
> >=20
> > Cite: 1949 May 26, Rockford Morning Star, [Advertisement for film:
> > Knock on Any Door], Page 27, Column 7, Rockford, Illinois.
> > (GenealogyBank)
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > He knows all the angles, loves all the girls, hates all cops. His
> > code: Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse!
> > [End excerpt]
> >=20
> >=20
> > In 1974 a biographer of James Dean claimed that Dean used the
> > expression. The biographer connected the words to the film version of
> > "Knock on Any Door" directed by Nicholas Ray.
> >=20
> > Cite: 1974, James Dean: The Mutant King: A Biography by David Dalton,
> > GB Page 274, Straight Arrow Books, San Francisco. (Google Books
> > snippet; Not yet verified on paper; Data may be inaccurate; The quote
> > does appear in the 2001 edition of the book which is visible in a
> > Google Books preview)
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > Jimmy was also fond of quoting a line from Nick Ray's Knock on Any
> > Door. "Live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse."
> > [End excerpt]
> >=20
> > Garson
> >=20
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org