“Extensive and brilliant investigations…a tour de force of detective work…Mr. O’Toole is a beacon of accuracy who should inspire all readers who prefer their facts real rather than phony.” —Wall Street Journal
Everywhere you look, you’ll find viral quotable wisdom attributed to icons ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Mark Twain, from Cicero to Woody Allen. But more often than not, these attributions are false.
Garson O’Toole—the Internet’s foremost investigator into the dubious origins of our most repeated quotations, aphorisms, and everyday sayings—collects his efforts into a first-ever encyclopedia of corrective popular history. Containing an enormous amount of original research, this delightful compendium presents information previously unavailable to readers, writers, and scholars. It also serves as the first careful examination of what causes misquotations and how they spread across the globe.
Using the massive expansion in online databases as well as old-fashioned gumshoe archival digging, O’Toole provides a fascinating study of our modern abilities to find and correct misinformation. As Carl Sagan did not say, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
“The book grew out of a wonderful website O’Toole has been conducting since 2010...[O’Toole] brings mad research skills and dogged determination to tracking down the real stories behind famous quotations.”—The Chronicle of Higher Education
“In Hemingway Didn’t Say That, Mr O’Toole trains his analytical eye upon a series of well-loved quotations to find their true and unexpected origins. Famous names whom we discover to be not quite as pithy or witty as we thought include Ms Marilyn Monroe, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and (probably one of the most misquoted men ever), Mr Mark Twain.”—Mr. Porter
“Garson O’Toole is the Sherlock Holmes of quotation sleuths, and Hemingway Never Said That provides an intriguing, behind-the-scenes look into his case files. A thoroughly enjoyable book on its own, and an essential reference work for those who take their quotations seriously.” —Dr. Mardy Grothe, author of Metaphors Be With You
“There is not—and never has been—anyone better at elucidating the early history of quotations than Garson O’Toole.” —Charles Clay Doyle, co-compiler of The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs
“When I was compiling the Yale Book of Quotations, I thought that would be my greatest contribution to the quotation addicts of the world. Now I know that my real greatest contribution has been to inspire Garson O’Toole. Anyone who loves quotations, which is just about everybody on the planet, should devour Hemingway Didn't Say That.” —Fred R. Shapiro, editor of The Yale Book of Quotations
“You don't need to be a detective to appreciate all the research that went into this book. Along the way, pay attention to Garson O’Toole's bag of verification tricks. This entertaining book is a must for librarians, professors, journalists, and others who cherish accurate, properly attributed information.” —David H. Rothman, editor-publisher of TeleRead
“[A]n excellent introduction to the subject...of what today might be called literary ‘fake news.’" —The Washington Times
"Glorious...seldom is academia in the raw this much fun"—Buffalo News, Editor's Choice
"Lovers of quotes will undoubtedly want to keep this book close at hand."—Bayou Catholic Monthly
