An Amusing Literary Anecdote

From Ford Maddox Ford’s book of literary reminiscences, Return to Yesterday (1931):

I had a singular encounter with Mr. Page [that’s Walter Hines Page, vice-president of the publishing house Doubleday, Page & Co. and the good looking fellow below]. I had published a historical novel in which one of the characters said – in order to indicate extreme rarity: “You will find a chaste whore as soon as that.”

Mr. Page told me that his firm certainly could not publish such a phrase. I said:

“Oh, well, Mr. Page, make it ‘a chaste dash’…‘You will find a chaste — as soon as that.’”

Mr. Page said:

“We certainly could not print the word ‘chaste.’ It is too suggestive.”