Quote: never before heard of a man's signing his name and forgetting to write the letter

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Barry Popik has now located some earlier citations for this anecdote
in April and May 1870. Here are the details for the earliest:

Date: April 27, 1870
Newspaper: Daily Evening Traveller (Boston Traveler)
Article: Signing One's Name
Section: Supplement
Quote Page: 2 (GNB Page 6)
Column: 1
Newspaper Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Database: GenealogyBank

[Begin excerpt]
SIGNING ONE'S NAME.-Mr. Beecher sends
the following note to the N. Y. Ledger:

"MY DEAR MR. BONNER,-I have just received a
curious letter from Michigan, and I give it to you
verbatim:

   "OWASSO CITY, Mich., 1870.
    APRIL FOOL"

I have heard of men who wrote letters and for-
got to sign their name, but never before met a
case in which a man signed his name and forgot
to write the letter.        H.W.B.
[End excerpt]

Please check for typos,
Garson

On Sun, Jul 21, 2013 at 2:19 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Quote: never before heard of a man's signing his name and
>               forgetting to write the letter
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Fred and list members: Here is a match from a preliminary search for
> the entertaining anecdote about Henry Ward Beecher. Earlier instances
> probably exist. I am sharing this because the use of "April Fool" in
> the signature changes the coloration of the anecdote I think.
>
> Title: A Manual of Composition and Rhetoric
> Author: John Seely Hart
> Year: 1871
> Publisher: J. L. Hammett
> Quote Page: 204
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=b3BXAAAAYAAJ&q=%22April+Fool%22#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Henry Ward Beecher once, on the 1st of April, received a letter
> containing simply the words "April Fool." He enclosed it to Bonner,
> with a note, saying, "I have often heard of people's writing letters
> and forgetting to sign their name, but I never before heard of a man's
> signing his name and forgetting to write the letter."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Sun, Jul 21, 2013 at 1:37 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Five Quotation Questions
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Below are five quotations for which I am seeking the earliest findable occurrence.  I would welcome any citations or suggestions regarding early usages of any of them.  I have not done any research myself on these, so some of them may be easily traceable and I apologize for not researching those myself.
>>
>> Fred Shapiro
>>
>>
>>
>> Neither am I.
>> Peter Cook ... on being told that the person sitting next to him at a dinner party was "writing a book"
>>
>> I have known many an instance of a man writing a letter and forgetting to sign his name, but this is the only instance I have ever known of a man signing his name and forgetting to write the letter.
>> Henry Ward Beecher, said upon receiving a note containing the single word "Fool"
>>
>> Life itself is a quotation  [original Spanish would be best]
>> Borges
>>
>> Shakespeare, I come!
>> Theodore Dreiser, intended last words
>>
>> Tell them I said something!
>> Pancho Villa, "last words"
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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