[Ads-l] Question about access to "The New York World" in 1925

[Ben Zimmer]

I have a particular interest in the New York World from 1924-25 because of
my involvement in the Crossword Craze site (https://crosswordcraze.today/),
which documents the crossword boom of that era. Crosswords began in the
World in 1913, and the paper continued to play an important role when the
craze hit a decade or so later. Unfortunately the World from those years
has not been scanned and digitized in any database, so we've had to rely on
other newspapers that syndicated the World content. That includes the
"Conning Tower" column by Franklin P. Adams (FPA was an early advocate of
crosswords and mentioned them frequently). I see that the Dorothy Parker
verse evidently first appeared in "The Conning Tower":

https://dorothyparker.com/2020/12/public-domain-2021.html

I'm sure the Dorothy Parker Society's information is correct, but it may
require tracking down microfilm of that issue of the World to confirm. (I
checked out the Buffalo Courier on Newspapers.com, as "The Conning Tower"
was often syndicated there, but it seems they didn't republish the column
for that particular day,)

--bgz


On Thu, Nov 7, 2024 at 1:45 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> According to the Wikiquote webpage for Dorothy Parker the following
> verse appeared in "The New York World" on  August 16, 1925. I would
> like to verify this.
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> News Item
> Men seldom make passes
> At girls who wear glasses.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Does any list member know whether scans of this newspaper issue are
> available in some database?
>
> I was asked about this verse after it was referred to during the
> Jeopardy game show. The verse does appear in the 1926 collection
> titled "Enough Rope" by Dorothy Parker. Here is a link:
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1Oq9nkE4zEC&q=%22who+wear%22#v=snippet&
>
>
>

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