Repartee: Oscar Wilde: I wish I had said that. James Whistler: You will, Oscar, you will

[Stephen Goranson]

1886, May 12, Wichita Daily Eagle, page 4 col. 2 for an earlier version of the story, attributed to The Argonaut:

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045789/1886-05-12/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=1836&sort=date&date2=1922&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=0&words=Oscar+Whistler+Wilde&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=Whistler+and+Oscar+Wilde&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

or:
http://tinyurl.com/mwoq4qz


Stephen Goranson
http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/

_____________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Hugo [hugovk at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Friday, September 06, 2013 2:42 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Repartee: Oscar Wilde: I wish I had said that. James              Whistler: You will, Oscar, you will

The exact same text, save for a comma or two, as the May 1887 can be found in February 1887:

[Begin]
Whistler and Wilde.
A Boston artist tells this story of Whist­-
ler and Oscar Wilde, who has the repute­-
tion of, borrowing Whistler's bright
speeches. Having heard the artist say an
unusually good thing Oscar exclaimed,
deploringly: "I wish I could have said
that." "Oh," replied Whistler derisively,
"but you know you will say it."
[End]

Bottom of the second column of:

Jamestown weekly alert. (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]), 10 Feb. 1887. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042405/1887-02-10/ed-1/seq-5/>

Hugo




> Date:    Thu, 5 Sep 2013 15:30:18 -0400
> From:    ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Repartee: Oscar Wilde: I wish I had said that. James Whistler: You
>         will, Oscar, you will
>
> A popular anecdote states that James McNeill Whistler (or somebody)
> made a humorous remark and the following statements were exchanged:
>
> Oscar Wilde: I wish I had said that.
> James McNeill Whistler: You will, Oscar, you will
>
> The Yale Book of Quotations has a citation in 1907. Fred later shared
> a great citation dated April 4, 1892 in the Yale Alumni magazine.
>
> The QI website now has an exploration of the topic with citations
> starting in May 1887:
>
> http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/09/05/oscar-will/
>
> Feedback, encomiums, and interesting citations welcome,
> Garson

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