[Ads-l] Antedating of "Little Green Man" in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction

[Jonathan Lighter]

Here are Martians as "front-page news" the following year:

1908 _Evening Bulletin_ (Honolulu) (July 31) 1:  The Martians were prepared
to catch the first message from the earth. "Let me see," said the first
little green man. "I wonder if the first communication will be a flash, a
tick or a knock." "A knock, very likely," laughed the second little green
man. "You know the earth is just full of knockers." Which shows how wise
the Martians really are.

"Knocker" = 'chronic adverse critic'

JL


On Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at 8:09 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I posted a few early non-spaceman LGM quotes some years ago.
>
> This one is new.
>
> 1907 _The State_ (Columbia, S.C.) (Feb. 17) 24: THE LITTLE GREEN MEN by G.
> Herb Palin...The president...was anxious to meet Eddie of New York and the
> ten little green men from the moon.
>
> Many will recall the later Gidney and Cloyd with their scrooch gun.
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at 7:37 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction has 1936 as its first
>> citation for "little green man."  Wikipedia notes the following:
>>
>> "However, the first use of the specific phrase 'little green man' in
>> reference to extraterrestrials that Aubeck found dates to 1908 in the Daily
>> Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine), in this case the aliens again being
>> Martians.
>>
>> Fred Shapiro
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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."
>


-- 
"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