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

[Jonathan Lighter]

I see that Peter Reitan reported on the 1907 moon men in 2018 - with a 1906
dateline.

Here's a little green fairy-type-man long before any thus far reported:

1801 in _The Spirit of the Public Journals_ (London: Phillips, 1802) 348:
THE LITTLE GREEN MAN   A GERMAN STORY...  Ibid.  349: The _Little Green
Man_ in the dead of the night,/ Fell in love with a maiden, so gaily
bedight.

JL

On Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at 8:34 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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."
>


-- 
"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