“I never call myself old because I shall be young until the crack of doom.”
- Date
- 1892
- Local voice
- Authorial / signed preface voice · Susan B. Anthony
Meaning of “I never call myself old because I shall…”
Anthony humorously refuses to let chronological age define her sense of energy or continued participation in the suffrage cause.
Where does it come from?
House Committee on the Judiciary woman-suffrage hearing, January 18, 1892. The Library of Congress preserves the official eight-page hearing pamphlet and confirms Anthony among its speakers; the exact interjection is reported in History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, edited by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper and represented by Project Gutenberg #29870. Anthony makes the remark at the close of Lucy Stone’s argument while introducing Isabella Beecher Hooker. It is Anthony’s live speaker voice within a multi-speaker hearing.
Why the local voice matters
House Judiciary woman-suffrage hearing, January 18, 1892. Anthony makes this humorous live remark while introducing Isabella Beecher Hooker after Lucy Stone’s argument; the multi-speaker hearing context is retained locally.