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Who really said it

A Gift Book Is an Item Which You Wouldn't Take on Any Other Terms

Not quite — Dorothy Parker wrote “a book”, not “an item” Dorothy Parker 1893–1967 · American poet, critic and short-story writer; founding member of the Algonquin Round Table
Disputed — the right author and a documented source, but not the words people quote. In copyright

Dorothy Parker wrote it, and we know exactly where. Reviewing Lucius Beebe’s Snoot If You Must under the title “The Trough of Plenty” in the Saturday Review of Literature of 11 December 1943, page 11, she wrote: “It must be what I believe is known as a gift book. That is to say, a book which you wouldn’t take on any other terms.” The version in circulation swaps her “book” for “an item” — a word Quote Investigator ↗ finds in none of the sources it cites.

Last verified 9 Sep 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed wording — copy with the correction

“A Gift Book Is an Item Which You Wouldn't Take on Any Other Terms” Dorothy Parker, reviewing Lucius Beebe's Snoot If You Must in "The Trough of Plenty," Saturday Review of Literature, 11 December 1943, page 11. She wrote "a book"; the popular version's "an item" is a later paraphrase. · Verbatim: “It must be what I believe is known as a gift book. That is to say, a book which you wouldn't take on any other terms.”

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by The estate of Dorothy Parker and the publishers of the Saturday Review of Literature). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Dorothy Parker — American poet, literary critic and short-story writer. Theme: "A Gift Book Is an Item Which You Wouldn't Take on Any Other Terms". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "A Gift Book Is an Item Which You Wouldn't Take on Any Other Terms". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Earliest documented source
The Trough of Plenty
Written by
Dorothy Parker · Saturday Review of Literature, 11 December 1943, page 11
The book under review
Snoot If You Must, by Lucius Beebe
Wording
Parker wrote “a book”; the circulating form says “an item”

It must be what I believe is known as a gift book. That is to say, a book which you wouldn’t take on any other terms. Dorothy Parker on Lucius Beebe, 11 December 1943

This is a review sentence, not an aphorism: Parker is not defining gift books in general, she is disposing of one particular book by one particular man. Quote Investigator ↗ reproduces the passage from page 11 of the Saturday Review of Literature; we could not consult the 1943 issue ourselves.

Quote Investigator: Parker’s 1943 review and the Winchell column that spread it

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator’s investigation ↗ gives the earliest citation as Dorothy Parker’s review “The Trough of Plenty” of Lucius Beebe’s Snoot If You Must, in the Saturday Review of Literature of 11 December 1943, page 11, and reproduces her sentence in full.
  • Walter Winchell is in the story, but as a megaphone rather than an author. QI: “Parker’s review was noticed by influential commentator Walter Winchell who repeated the quip in his widely-read column in January 1944.” The column of 3 January 1944 names her outright — “D. Parker in the Sat. Review cracks down on Luke Beebe’s tome… ‘That is to say,’ Dotty sabers, ‘a book you wouldn’t take on any other terms.’”
  • The line then passes into the quotation books with Parker’s name attached and her wording intact: Bennett Cerf’s Try and Stop Me (1944), page 111, then The Algonquin Wits (1968) and Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker (1996). Every one of them says “a book”.
  • On the wording we asked Quote Investigator directly: the word “item” appears in its headline for the piece, and in none of the sources the piece cites. So the familiar form is a later smoothing of a review sentence, not a quotation of one.
  • We read Wikiquote’s Dorothy Parker page ↗ in full — it maintains separate Quotes, Attributed and Misattributed sections. The gift-book line appears in none of them, in either wording. Dates checked independently: Parker, 22 August 1893 – 7 June 1967 ↗, Winchell, 7 April 1897 – 20 February 1972 ↗, and Beebe, 9 December 1902 – 4 February 1966 ↗
In copyright

Parker’s review was published on 11 December 1943, well after 1931, the current cut-off for the United States public domain, so the text is in copyright — as are Winchell’s 1944 column and Cerf’s 1944 book. Quoting the sentence with attribution is ordinary quotation; reproducing the review is not.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Often mis-worded, and sometimes mis-credited

Two things have happened to this line on its way to you: it lost a word, and it picked up a second name.

“An item” for “a book” Later variant

Parker was reviewing a book and wrote “a book”. The generalised form — “a gift book is an item which you wouldn’t take on any other terms” — turns a specific insult into a general maxim. Quote Investigator ↗ confirms the word “item” is in none of the sources it cites; every citation from 1943 to 1996 reads “book”.

Walter Winchell Repeater, not the author

Winchell was a nationally famous syndicated gossip columnist, and his column of 3 January 1944 carried the joke far beyond the Saturday Review’s readership — which is how a repeater’s name comes to travel with a line. But he was quoting, and said so: he named Parker, named her review, and put her words in quotation marks. QI credits him with repeating the quip, never with coining it ↗

Lucius Beebe Subject, not the author

Beebe — writer, gourmand, railroad historian and columnist — wrote the book Parker was reviewing, Snoot If You Must. He is the person the line was aimed at, which occasionally gets him listed alongside it. QI’s verdict ↗: “Dorothy Parker did bare her fangs and Lucius Beebe did feel her venom.”

Best evidence: Dorothy Parker, “The Trough of Plenty,” Saturday Review of Literature, 11 December 1943, page 11 — the earliest documented source, per Quote Investigator ↗, which reproduces her sentence in full.

Context

Why it mattered

Parker had made her name writing for magazines including The New Yorker, and as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table — a reputation for sharp wit she herself deplored. By 1943 she was famous enough that a single sentence could follow a book around for years afterwards, which is roughly what happened to Snoot If You Must.

Quote Investigator ends on the odd double effect of that kind of wit, borrowing a line from Somerset Maugham: “Helen could make a scholar immortal with a kiss; she (Dorothy Parker) can make a fool immortal with a jibe.”

Beebe is remembered for the book. The book is remembered for the sentence about it.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Truth Knowledge

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigatorquoteinvestigator.com

Parker’s 1943 review passage, Winchell’s 1944 column, and the chronology to 1996
Wikiquote: Dorothy Parkeren.wikiquote.org

Her sourced, attributed and misattributed quotes — this line is in none of the three
Wikipedia: Dorothy Parkeren.wikipedia.org

The critic known for her caustic wisecracks: 1893–1967
Wikipedia: Walter Winchellen.wikipedia.org

The syndicated gossip columnist whose 1944 column carried the joke nationwide
Wikipedia: Lucius Beebeen.wikipedia.org

The author of Snoot If You Must, the book Parker was reviewing: 1902–1966

The author

About Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker

1893–1967 · American poet, literary critic and short-story writer

Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild, 1893–1967) was an American poet, critic and writer of fiction, based in New York and known for her caustic wisecracks and her eye for twentieth-century urban foibles. She was a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table and published in magazines including The New Yorker; in the early 1930s she went to Hollywood to write screenplays, earning two Academy Award nominations. The gift-book line comes from the reviewing that made her name.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Parker, Dorothy. “The Trough of Plenty.” Review of Snoot If You Must, by Lucius Beebe. Saturday Review of Literature, 11 December 1943, page 11. Earliest documented source, per Quote Investigator ↗. Parker’s wording is “a book which you wouldn’t take on any other terms”.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘A Gift Book Is an Item Which You Wouldn't Take on Any Other Terms’?” Last verified 9 Sep 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/a-gift-book-is-an-item-which-you-wouldnt-take-on-any-other/

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