I'm curious.  As the 1853 letter to his mother was published in the Hannibal journal that same fall, why doesn't that count as the earliest published use?

--- On Sun, 5/2/10, Robert Hirst <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> From: Robert Hirst <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: that makes it two wrong
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Sunday, May 2, 2010, 10:09 AM
> Barb Schmidt points out that the 1
> November 1856 Snodgrass letter 
> beats the "River Intelligence."
> 
> Kerry Driscoll points out that Letter IV of "Letters from
> the Earth" 
> (October-November 1909) beats the letter to Dorothy Quick.
> 
> Now why did I stay up all night to get my answers?
>