All:
A faculty member is looking for the source of the phrase "It's a
free country." A colleague of his thought it might have come
from James Fenimore Cooper, but that has not panned out so far.
Clearly, it may just be too ubiquitous to be tracked down to a
source. In a 1990 law review article, Andrew Koppelman
identified it as a "popular American saying" (84 Nw. U. L. Rev.
480). Kenneth Lasson has referred to it as being "[i]n the
vernacular..." (23 Duq. L. Rev. 97). We have checked about 20
standard quotation books, including political, literary and
historical collections, as well as Lexis and Westlaw. Any
additional leads will be greatly appreciated.
Titles checked include:
Columbia Dict of Q's
Home Book of American Q's
The Q Dictionary
Magill's Q's in Context
Oxford Dict. of Q's
Evans Dict. of Q's
Q's in History
Respectfully Quoted
Power Quotes
Dict. of Political Q's
Political Q's
Contemprary Q's
Steven's Home Book of Q's
Oxford D. of Modern Q's
Many thanks,
Linda Karr O'Connor
Nazareth Pantaloni, III
Reference Department
Cornell Law Library
Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853-4901
email: naz@law.mail.cornell.edu
phone: 607.255.9691
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 03/09/00 PST