phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

The art of the deal

Posted by Michael Koppy on April 11, 2009 at 23:50

In Reply to: The art of the deal posted by Baceseras on April 08, 2009 at 12:51:

: : : I'm trying to fid the origins of the phrase "The art of the deal". Yes, yes the insufferable self-promoter Donald Trump had a 1987 ghost-written self-aggrandizing book titled with the phrase. But I can not find any reference to the first coinage.

: : Two references -- The Yale Book of Quotations and The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Fifth Edition -- have a quote from Trump's book Art of the Deal. But I'm with you, no way he is the originator. Maybe his ghostwriter.

: [Just a guess: in the early 1980s Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" was one of the hot books for its applicability to business strategy - it had already been something of a cult book among ambitious executives, and at that time it exploded into public awareness through the news-weeklies and a mention in the movie "Wall street". It's likely that Trump's publishing team wanted to coat-tail on the one out front. - Bac.]

Thanks to you both anyway; guess I'll hafta keep pondering and asking around.
If either of y'all (or anyone ELSE reading this who has an idea) comes up with a direction, please email me direct at mkoppy@gmail.com. Damned if I wanna even mention Trump in my footnote for the phrase.
Thanks to all.

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.