# Earliest Use Of "Fuck" In A Novel
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-use-of-fuck-in-a-novel/518479
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 22, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-use-of-fuck-in-a-novel/518479 "2009-11-22T00:22:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-use-of-fuck-in-a-novel/518479/1 "2009-11-22T00:22:53Z")
I mention in another thread that when I read _The Catcher In The Rye_ when it came out in 1951, it was most notable to me for being the first time I had seen the work “fuck” in print. And now I wonder: what was the earliest use of that word in a mainstream American novel?
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### Author:  [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-use-of-fuck-in-a-novel/518479/2 "2009-11-22T00:29:33Z")
Does it have to be American? [Lady Chatterley’s Lover](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Chatterley%27s_Lover) came out in 1928.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-use-of-fuck-in-a-novel/518479/3 "2009-11-22T00:47:23Z")
_Ahem_!
[What’s the origin of “fuckin’ A”?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2077/whats-the-origin-of-fuckin-a)
That’s my quick answer–1947, Norman Mailer. I’ll look further.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-use-of-fuck-in-a-novel/518479/4 "2009-11-22T00:52:28Z")
No offense, Sam, but Mailer’s use of fug instead of fuck in _Naked and the Dead_ is a textbook case of fuck not being use in a mainstream American novel.
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### Author:  [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-use-of-fuck-in-a-novel/518479/5 "2009-11-22T01:19:33Z")
The first use of fuck in real literature (not bawdy ballads) is James Joyce’s _Ulysses_ in 1922. Scottish poet Robert Burns has some posthumous bawdy poems with fuck in them published in 1911, but I think that might have been a private publication.
Source: OED
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2009, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-use-of-fuck-in-a-novel/518479/6 "2009-11-22T03:04:29Z")
> [@Erdosain](#):
>
> The first use of fuck in real literature (not bawdy ballads) is James Joyce’s _Ulysses_ in 1922. Scottish poet Robert Burns has some posthumous bawdy poems with fuck in them published in 1911, but I think that might have been a private publication.
>
> Source: OED
If you’re going back that far, then you have to consider Victorian and Edwardian erotica. There is scads and scads of them and all the four letter words of the day are in common supply. That’s certainly not mainstream, but many of these works were well known and survive to this day.
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### Author:  [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2009, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-use-of-fuck-in-a-novel/518479/7 "2009-11-22T05:15:37Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> If you’re going back that far, then you have to consider Victorian and Edwardian erotica. There is scads and scads of them and all the four letter words of the day are in common supply. That’s certainly not mainstream, but many of these works were well known and survive to this day.
Well, I assume that’s what the bawdy ballads cited in the OED were. But I also assume that those were privately published and not mainstream. If they were mainstream, then they would have been banned, just like _Ulysses_ was banned in the U.S. and U.K. until the 1930s for obscenity (the 1922 edition was published in France).
I still think _Ulysses_ is the best answer to the OP, unless he really wants an American novel.
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2009, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-use-of-fuck-in-a-novel/518479/8 "2009-11-22T06:22:46Z")
It must be “fuck”? If “swyve” is acceptable, you can go back much farther.
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### Author:  [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2009, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-use-of-fuck-in-a-novel/518479/9 "2009-11-22T07:24:43Z")
I’ll be swyven. Never knew there was such a word.
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### Author:  [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2009, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-use-of-fuck-in-a-novel/518479/10 "2009-11-22T12:35:51Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> No offense, Sam, but Mailer’s use of fug instead of fuck in _Naked and the Dead_ is a textbook case of fuck not being use in a mainstream American novel.
Ifsf’t bo fbsmjfs fybnqmf pg b ufyucppl dbtf dpodfsojoh uif xpse ‘fuccant’.
J hjwf zpv _Flen Flyys_ (d.1475).
[Mjol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flen_flyys).
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### Author:  [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-use-of-fuck-in-a-novel/518479/11 "2009-11-22T15:17:34Z")
> [@samclem](#):
>
> What’s the origin of “fuckin’ A”?
Had to be some Canadian.