Quick quotation question.

[randomness]

On August 5, 2010, Christopher Hitchens was interviewed by Anderson Cooper*. In that interview, he says of his drinking and smoking, "I rather enjoyed the feeling of burning the candle at both ends...[A]nd it gave a lovely light.”

I've seen his use of this particular phrase quoted by many in their obituaries. In very, very few places--five found by Google, just now--is the phrase attributed to Edna St. Vincent Millay.

"My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
It gives a lovely light."
- Edna St. Vincent Millay, "A Few Figs from Thistles"

It's a perfect quote for the situation, and I'm sure Hitchens knew who he was quoting.

Is this such a commonly known quote that everyone knows where it came from? Or has the "candle burning at both ends/giving a lovely light" simply become a common saying that everyone knows, so attribution is unnecessary? Or is it just that my Google-fu is awful?

(I'm a terrible judge of how common it is because my first serious girlfriend wrote her thesis on the works of Edna St. Vincent Millay.)

*First half of quote at 0:45, second half at 2:20. Transcript at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1112/16/acd.01.html. Non-embeddable video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeiS7hYbb8c

Comments

[redbird]

I suspect it's the reverse: Millay is just obscure enough, and people lazy enough, that the obituary writers are assuming it's original with Hitchens and not even asking or looking around.

I suspect that it's also relevant that this is a man quoting a woman, rather than the other way around, or a man quoting another man's work.

[randomness]

You know, those possibilities had crossed my mind, but I didn't want to go straight to that conclusion so I thought I'd ask around.

I fear you may be right on both counts.