[Ads-l] Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba

[Peter Reitan]

True story.

I searched the word string, "able was i" for between 1825 and 1845 on hathitrust.

One of the top 3 or 4 results on the list was a book about Napolean, his life and words published in the 1830s.

Wow!

I thought until looking inside, and it was something unrelated, beginning with the word remarkable separated at the end of a line so able appeared alone.

But still, a remarkable coincidence.
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Subject: Re: Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba

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Pete Morris wrote:
> It's arguably the most famous palindrome in English. It is
> certainly the first one I  ever heard. When my father introduced
> me to the concept at a young age, this is the example he used.
>
> According to wikiquote:  (Section on Napoleon)
> https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Napoleon_I_of_France#Misattributed

Thanks for sharing the results of your efforts, Pete. You found an
excellent citation.
Back in September 2013 I located the same citation and initiated a
thread about it on this mailing list.

Palindrome: Able was I ere I saw Elba
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2013-September/128433.html

Several list members made helpful comments and shared their
discoveries. I created an article for the QI website which is
available here:

Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/09/15/saw-elba/

Garson O'Toole

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