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

[Jonathan Lighter]

The same item appeared verbatim earlier in the _Kansas City Star_ (April 6,
1908), p.13.

I'm unable to locate the ex. cited in Wikipedia. Odds are it's the same
jest.

JL

JL

On Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at 8:25 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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."
>


-- 
"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