It Is Classic Because of a Certain Eternal and Irrepressible Freshness

Edith Wharton? Ezra Pound? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: A classic work must be timeless, and it must also exhibit an irrepressible freshness. This notion has been attributed to the prominent U.S. novelist Edith Wharton and the well-known poet and critic Ezra Pound. Would you please help me to resolve this uncertainty?

Quote Investigator: In 1934 Ezra Pound published “ABC of Reading” which included the following passage. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:^[1] 1960 (1934 Copyright), ABC of Reading by Ezra Pound, Section: Warning, Quote Page 13 and 14, New Directions Publishing Corporation, New York. (Verified with scans)

A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness.

QI has found no substantive evidence that Edith Wharton used this saying. She died in 1937, and she received credit by 2006.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In 1985 “A Teacher’s Treasury of Quotations” compiled by Bernard E. Farber included an entry for the quotation. Ezra Pound received credit for a version in which the parenthetical statement was slightly shortened:^[2] 1985, A Teacher’s Treasury of Quotations, Compiled by Bernard E. Farber, Section Classic, Quote Page 55, McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina. (Verified on paper)

A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness.
—Ezra Pound, ABC of Reading: Warning (1934).

In 1993 “The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations” included an entry for the quotation. Ezra Pound received credit, and the text matched the original version in “ABC of Reading”.^[3] 1993, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Edited by Robert Andrews, Topic: Books – Classics, Quote Page 104, Columbia University Press, New York. (Verified with scans)

In 2006 “The News Tribune” of Tacoma, Washington printed an instance while crediting Edith Wharton:^[4] 2006 November 5, The News Tribune, Quotable, Quote Page E9, Column 3, Tacoma, Washington. (Newspapers_com)

QUOTABLE
“A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness.”
EDITH WHARTON

In 2013 the “Little Black Book of Writers’ Wisdom” edited by Steven D. Price also credited Wharton.^[5]2013, Little Black Book of Writers’ Wisdom, Edited by Steven D. Price, Chapter 2: “But What Are They Doing in That Cottage?”: How We Write, Quote Page 92, Skyhorse Publishing, New York. … Continue reading

In conclusion, Ezra Pound deserves credit for the passage he wrote in “ABC of Reading” in 1934. The attribution to Edith Wharton is unsupported.

(Great thanks to Simura Gemi whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.)

Image Notes: Picture of a stack of books from Alexas_Fotos at Pixabay. Image has been resized.