Patrick O’Connor? Stella Adler? Edward Fuller? Elizabeth Hodgson? Irving Babbitt? Margaret Harford? Jed Harris? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Living authors are often viewed with a mixture of suspicion and aggravation. Here are three versions of a pertinent adage:
(1) The only good author is a dead author.
(2) All good authors are dead authors.
(3) The best author is a dead author.
Interestingly, this adage has two different meanings. Publishers and editors use the adage to encapsulate a collection of complaints about writers, e.g., late manuscripts, poor quality writing, and exorbitant monetary demands.
Academics and critics use the adage to signal that a delay is required when evaluating the worthiness of a writer. Typically, the quality, impact, and longevity of a literary oeuvre can only be accurately judged many years after the author has died.
Would you please explore the provenance of this adage?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI in the domain of publishing and editing appeared on September 29, 1886. Anonymous editors received credit. The earliest match in the domain of criticism and academia appeared on May 29, 1895. The attribution was anonymous. Here is an overview showing selected examples together with dates and attributions:
1886 Sep 29: … they will not pay a man for manuscript unless he will agree to die before it is put in print. This precaution is taken so that the author can’t come in afterward and “cuss” about the bad proofreading. Also on the theory that the only really good author is a dead one. (Attributed to anonymous “western editors”)
1895 May 29: We must not conclude that all good books are old books, nor that all good authors are dead authors. (Anonymous)
1903 Feb: It is unnecessary to assume, of course, that the only good authors are dead authors. Undue depreciation of the literature of the day may be quite as futile as undue approval … (Edward Fuller)
1906 Sep 20: From the teacher’s point of view one is tempted to lay down the rule that the only good authors are dead authors. (Irving Babbitt)
1916 Apr 22: It is a mistake to suppose that the only good authors are dead ones. Some colleges have fostered the idea that literary genius is extinct. (A. S. Mackenzie)
1919 May: They were often bookworms that had bored their way through countless musty volumes, it being their first axiom that the only good author is a dead author. (Attitude ascribed to “old college professors” by Elizabeth Hodgson)
1921 May: There have always been—there will always be—people like Mr. Knox, who feel that the only good author is a dead author, and the only good story an unpopular story. (Attitude ascribed to Vicesimus Knox by an unnamed writer)
1941 Mar 19: The best author is a dead author—at least from the point of view of scholarship. (Attributed to William Y. Tindall)
1958 Jan 10: The only good author is a dead author. (Attributed to Jed Harris by Thornton Wilder)
1970 Apr 19: Ignoring the old saw that “the best author is a dead author,” playwright Brian Friel showed up, very much alive, to maneuver some minor, last-minute changes in his new play, “Crystal & Fox”. (“Old saw” according to Margaret Harford)
1971: When a publisher says that the best authors are dead authors, he means that the latter cannot torment him by being late with their manuscripts, demanding more money, threatening to go off to another publisher, or telephoning him in the middle of the night. (Publisher’s saying according to Anthony Blond)
1972 Spring: Students of twentieth century literature are familiar with the classical position of Academia: namely, the only good author is a dead author. (“Classical position of Academia” according to Eugenia N. Zimmerman)
1975 May 4: We have a motto. It’s that the only good author is a dead author. (“A motto” according to Patrick O’Connor)
1993 Aug 23: The only good author is one who’s been dead at least 100 years. (Attributed to anonymous education reformers)
2008 May 29: The best author is a dead author. He can’t stand around at the rehearsals, watching and making everybody nervous. (Attributed to Stella Adler by Barry Paris)
Below are details for selected citations in chronological order.
Continue reading “Adage Origin: The Only Good Author Is a Dead Author”
