Hemingway Didn't Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations

This is a very good book. However, you have to be at a certain geek level to really appreciate it. I am almost that geeky.

First, the premise is great. It provides a large number of quotes that are misattributed. For example, the book’s title (Hemingway Didn’t Say That) relates to the apocryphal story of Hemingway being challenged (or Hemingway establishing his own challenge – pick the tale you want to tell) to write a short story only six words long. The result was “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” A heartbreaking tale, but not from Hemingway.

Another of my favorites (merely because of its fame) is the quote misattributed to Maya Angelou, “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” A show more great thought. And one that is easily tagged with Ms. Angelou because of her book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. But, nope, she didn’t say it.

There are many more within these pages, and each is an interesting tale of great quotes attributed to great people with great incorrectness. (There’s a quote that no one will want to steal from me.)

It does a good job of delving into how the misattributions may have occurred, often providing the originator of the quote (though some are lost in the annals of time.)

Where the geekiness really goes overboard is in the number of citations of the quotes’ histories. In some cases, these feel redundant (it seems like it is the same quote, just surfacing again and again) but such thorough research does reveal the painstaking approach used to validate the statement made throughout.

For the casual reader, there is good information. But for the true quotaphile there is a wealth of hidden treasure. show less

O'Toole is to be lauded for his research in debunking errant attributions of quotes, but at book length, it does become a bit tedious. If the quotes themselves were more interesting, this might not be the case. He also shows that while it is quite easy to prove that someone didn't say something (at least not originally), it is very difficult to pin down who actually did say it, or something quite like it first. The research here is quite convincing so far as it goes, however. I'll never look at a quote with as much trust again!

For the most part a pretty boring book. Perhaps interesting for some, but certainly not me. I learned nothing of any importance and there was little of interest to want to seek any further knowledge regarding any of the subjects investigated. All in all a disappointment.

A fascinating study of widely-circulated, mis-attributed quotations.

For the most part a pretty boring book. Perhaps interesting for some, but certainly not me. I learned nothing of any importance and there was little of interest to want to seek any further knowledge regarding any of the subjects investigated. All in all a disappointment.

Collection of investigations into the actual provenance of often misattributed quotes, including some search for their predecessors.

So many of the reviewers seem to be judging this book against what they wanted it to be. I want to read it to judge it on its own merits. I bet that I give it four stars. I already like the website.