On the Internet, a statement attributed to the American writer is popular about the ability of women to make a salad, make a headdress or arrange a quarrel from scratch. We decided to check if he said something like that.

This phrase indicating the authorship of Twain is found at Information And entertainment portals, in social networks (Instagram*, Telegram, Facebook*) and on the blog-platforms ("Picabu" Livejournal, "Zen"). In a slightly altered formulation, a quote sometimes attributed The French fashion designer Coco Chanel - she allegedly believed that a real woman should be able to do all of the above. If in the version supposedly belonging to Peru Twain, the phrase is ironic in nature, then in the option attributed to Chanel, it is more about the guide to action.

American writer Mark Twain is known for his humor and figurative, aphoristic language, so it is not surprising that along with the Nobel laureate Albert Einstein, he is in the leading leaders in the number of attributed to him Quote, many from which "Checked" already Disassembled previously. For more than a hundred years that have passed since the death of Twain, his literary heritage has been carefully studied and digitized. Therefore, it is not so difficult to check whether he belongs to this or that statement.

The most complete collections of Twain's works can be found in the archive Mark Twain Projects Onlinecollected with the support of the University of California in Berkeley, in the base Twain quotes, which includes texts belonging to Peru Mark Twain or dedicated to the writer, and in electronic archive Twain, compiled by the library of the University of Virginia. None of them was “verified” to find the dismantled quote. Such a phrase was not found in a large collection of quotes of the writer "Mark Twain on the fingertips»Edited by Caroline Thomas Harnsberger, who was friends with Twain's daughter and had access to the originals of most of his works.

The earliest happening Publications of a statement about the ability of a woman to make a salad, a hat and a scandal that a quote investigator portal specializing in quotation checks is a selection of aphorisms in The Canton Press on June 7, 1907 (this number was released three years before Twain’s death). However, like other statements from the collection, the dismantled phrase was printed without indicating anyone's authorship. In subsequent years, aphorism was also found in other newspaper articles and selections of quotes - the word “scandal” sometimes changed to “quarrel” or “argument”, but until 1959 Twain was not mentioned in connection with this quote. However, almost half a century after his death, the Canadian newspaper The Calgary Herald attributed authorship to the American writer, clarifying that “yes, it was Mark Twain” that expressed this idea.

And before and after the publication of The Calgary Herald, authorship of the quote was attributed to other famous personalities: not only Chanelbut also a German film Marlene Dietrichas well as an American actor John Berrimor. However, if one of them ever used this phrase, then he could hardly be its author. At the time of her first publication in The Canton Press, Dietrich was only six years old. Chanel had already turned 23 by that time, but in 1907 it was far from so famous that her statements appeared in American newspapers. At the beginning of the 20th century, Berrymore was already a popular actor, and he could well quote the press, however, the first case of attributes to him a statement about a hat, a salad and a scandal discovered by Quote Investigator dates back to 1954, 12 years after the death of the artist.

Thus, there is no evidence that Mark Twain was the author of the said statement. For the first time, the quote was published in one of the American newspapers without indicating authorship and, probably, was subsequently attributed to Twain erroneously. Because of his glory, the witty writer, whose work is full of aphorisms, is quite reasonable to assume that he could say something like that.

*The Russian authorities consider Meta Platforms Inc., which owns social networks Facebook and Instagram, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Photo on the cover: Library of CongressPublic Domain, Via Wikimedia Commons