Christopher Morley Quotes
Born On
1890-05-05Died On
1957-03-28Birth Place
HaverfordDeath Place
New YorkBirth Sign
taurusFather
Frank MorleyMother
Lilian Janet BirdSpouse
Helen Booth FairchildNationality
AmericanEducation
Haverford College, New College, Oxford, University of OxfordA wise man once said, “When you sell a man a book you don’t sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue — you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night — there’s all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean. Jiminy! If I were the baker or the butcher or the broom huckster, people would run to the gate when I came by — just waiting for my stuff. And here I go loaded with everlasting salvation — yes, ma’am, salvation for their little, stunted minds — and it’s hard to make ’em see it. That’s what makes it worthwhile — I’m doing something that nobody else from Nazareth, Maine, to Walla Walla, Washington, has ever thought of. It’s a new field, but by the bones of Whitman, it’s worthwhile. That’s what this country needs — more books!” The ingenious soul was none other than American writer Christopher Morley. The above is an excerpt from his first novel ‘Parnassus on Wheels’. Here’s another instance of Morley’s sense of humor. Apparently Morley and his friend, author William Rose Benet were window shopping and they happened to cross a wig shop. A pair of identical wigs grabbed the attention of the two men and Morley remarked that “They’re alike as toupees in a pod.”
