Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1825). “The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals”, p.160
Attributed in Wash. Post, 30 Nov. 1952. The Post article is quoting an article in Quick Magazine from the summer of 1951. According to a letter by William S. Rubin in the New York Times, 5 Jan. 1969, this is "a trumpery originated in Il Libro Nero published by Giovanni Papini in 1951."