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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Gap-fillers:

1931 _San Francisco Chronicle_ (May 24) 8-S [GenealogyBank]: Each of the
little green men seized two earth men and carried them to a boiling pit of
molten lava [on Mars].

1938 _Corpus Christi Times_ (Nov 1) 1 [Newspapers.com]: Thirteen little
green men from Mercury stepped out of their space ship at Cliff Maus field
late yesterday afternoon for a good-will visit to Corpus Christi.

JL

On Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at 9:13 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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."
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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