[PW] Re: "Libraries will get you through times of no money..." quotation

[Fred Shapiro]

On Mon, 27 Nov 2006, Bristol Library wrote:

> Since our copy of the Yale Dictionary of Quotation has yet to arrive, I
> wanted to consult about the authorship of the oft-repeated quotation,
> "Libraries (or books) will get you through times of (or with) no money
> better than money will get you through times of/with no libraries/books."
> It's often attributed to Anne Herbert but one site claims Paulette Dickerson
> coined it.  Most agree that it's a take-off from "Dope will get you through
> times of no money..." quotation by Gilbert Shelton.  I did find someone
> posting that it appeared in the 3rd edition of the Whole Earth Catalog but
> as we don't have a copy I can't verify.

While researching The Yale Book of Quotations, I communicated with Anne 
Herbert about this quote (and her more famous one about "random kindenss 
and senseless acts of beauty").  So I probably got the following 
information from her:

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will 
get you through times of no libraries.
 	Anne Herbert, Quoted in _The Next Whole Earth Catalog: Access to 
Tools_, ed. Stewart Brand (1980).  Herbert derived this quotation from 
Gilbert Shelton's statement about drugs and money.

Incidentally, it is my supposition that the parent Gilbert Shelton quote 
must itself have been derived from some earlier saying about love or sex 
getting you through times of no money, but I don't know if anyone besides 
me agrees with that supposition.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press
Yale Law School                             ISBN 0300107986
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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