[PW] "Gory details" phrase origin

[Dennis Lien]

At 01:53 PM 1/23/2007, you wrote:
>Here are some clues.
>
>The earliest mention in the New York Times is back in 2 October 1888


An advanced "Google in Books" search, limiting to pre-1890 dates,
shows several earlier examples:

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Napoleon III.: From the Popular Caricatures of the Last Thirty Years. With 
the Story of His Life - Page 268
by James Madison Haswell, John Camden Hotten - 1873 - 319 pages
We turn with disgust from such gory details of Louis Napoleon's "handiwork" as
given by M. Victor Hugo. Believe it who may, that the soldiers were made ...
Snippet view - About this book




The Cornhill Magazine: Vol. I, January to June, 1860. - Page 308
by George Smith, William Makepeace Thackeray - 1860
Murderers usually love pleasant stories domestic sentiment; humanitarians 
nearly
always wallow in the gory details of detective fiction. ...
Snippet view - About this book



Notes and Queries - Page 218
1849
... narrat-ing their " true accounts," one variation on the explicit 
relation of
gory details appeared in a series of eight brief tracte dated between Dec. ...
Snippet view - About this book



Journal of the American Oriental Society
by American Oriental Society - 1849
Page 395
No preview available



Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society
by American Antiquarian Society - 1843
No preview available


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Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // d-lien at umn.edu