[Ads-l] Request verification of quotation in 1919 magazine issue: Time is what keeps everything from happening at once

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The Quote Investigator website now has an entry about the quotation in
the subject line.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/07/06/time/

The first appearance apparently occurred in a short story titled "The
Girl in the Golden Atom" by Ray Cummings published in an issue of
"All-Story Weekly" dated March 15, 1919; however, the evidence I've
gathered is indirect. I found the story reprinted in the following
1970 collection.

[ref] 1970, Under the Moons of Mars: A History and Anthology of "The
Scientific Romance" in the Munsey Magazines: 1912-1920, Edited by Sam
Moskowitz, The Girl in the Golden Atom by Ray Cummings (All-Story
Weekly, March 15, 1919), Start Page 175, Quote Page 205, Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, New York. (Verified with scans) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
"How would you describe time?"
The Big Business Man smiled. "Time," he said, "is what keeps
everything from happening at once."
"Very clever," said the Chemist, laughing.
[End excerpt]

The goal of this request is to obtain direct verification of the
quotation in the 1919 magazine issue using hardcopy or scans.

This request is not new. Fred Shapiro sent a message to the American
Dialect Society mailing list way back in 2006 asking about the same
quotation, but no public respondent was able to verify the quotation.
"The Yale Book of Quotations" has a 1921 citation which probably can
be improved. Maybe the forthcoming second edition has the earlier
citation?

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2006-November/064674.html

Wikiquote has the 1921 citation, but suggests that an earlier citation
might be possible. The Wikiquote discussion is in the "Misattributed"
section of the Albert Einstein webpage.

A bookseller on ABEbooks is selling pages from the 1919 issue of
"All-Story Weekly" containing "The Girl In The Golden Atom" for $55.
Perhaps I should ask the bookseller to attempt to verify the
quotation. The verified presence of the quotation might enhance the
value of the pages.

https://www.abebooks.com/magazines-periodicals/All-Story-Weekly-Cover-Pages-Girl-Golden/12554344342/bd

Garson O'Toole

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