Moses Hadas – Quote Investigator®

Quote Origin: Thank You for the Gift Book. I Shall Lose No Time In Reading It

Benjamin Disraeli? William Gladstone? William Makepeace Thackeray? Moses Hadas? A celebrated botanist? A Scotchman? Thomas Bailey Aldrich? Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.? Samuel Wilberforce? Max O’Rell? Question for Quote Investigator: Aspiring authors sent numerous manuscripts to the statesman and novelist Benjamin Disraeli. Reportedly, he would send back a wittily ambiguous response: Many thanks; I shall lose …

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Quote Origin: This Book Fills a Much-Needed Gap – Part 02

Gary Cooper? Lee Neuwirth? Henry Miller? Moses Hadas? Question for Quote Investigator: I was told that a prominent journal editor would sometimes write a rejection letter to an author that said his or her “paper fills a much-needed gap”. Is this true? Reply from Quote Investigator: This post continues the investigation of the phrase “much …

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Quote Origin: This Book Fills a Much-Needed Gap – Part 01

Question for Quote Investigator: I once read that the funniest book review ever written begins with the sentence: “This book fills a much-needed gap”. Does this book review actually exist? Reply from Quote Investigator: Remarkably, the phrase mentioned does appear in many book reviews and other evaluations. For years writers have been incongruously eager to …

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