WHERE IT APPEARED

In the book version of:

The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Ch. 3

Ward, Lock & Co., 1891

In the story the comment is made in general conversation by Erskine at a lunch given by Lady Agatha.

Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered,' said Mr Erskine. 'I myself would say that it had merely been detected'.

WHERE IT DID NOT APPEAR

In the earlier magazine version in:

Lippincott's Monthly Magazine Vol. XLVI, No. 271, July [June 20] 1890, pp. 3-100.

The quotation does not appear here as originally published in thirteen chapters.

WHERE IT CAN ALSO BE FOUND

In a Wilde manuscript list of aphorisms, c. 1890:

"It is a vulgar error to suppose that America was ever discovered. It was merely detected."

Manuscript: Clark Library MS W6721M3 P576

SOURCES

Book: Mason, 328.

Magazine: Mason, 81.

Bibliography of Oscar Wilde

by Stuart Mason, 1914

LONDON | T. WERNER LAURIE LTD.

Credit for the manuscript source:

The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts, Oxford University Press, 2005

Russell Jackson, Joseph Bristow, Ian Small