According to Wiktionary the first sited usage:

• 1950: Beverly Cleary, Henry Huggins, p21

  “Whatcha got in that bag?” asked Scooter.

  “None of your beeswax,” answered Henry.

And I wanted to stop there. Why? Because Beverly Cleary is the awesomest ever! Just ask Sarah. But it seems, as it often does, that usage trails back further. Some goofy earthlink website dates it to the 20’s stating, “The twenties were the first decade to emphasize youth culture over the older generations, and the flapper sub-culture had a tremendous influence on main stream America.” Makes sense, but not the most reliable looking site.

And, upon further research, it seems that according to Eric Partridge’s A Dictionary of Catch Phrases: British and American from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day, it was originally in the broadway musical No, No Nanette. From Wikipedia “…a musical comedy with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, music by Vincent Youmans, and a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel.”

So, Beverly Cleary didn’t invent beeswax but she certainly invented Beezus and Ramona, who are simply the greatest heroines in all of literature.

Thank you for coming.

Update: That janky earthlink website actually stole all of those definitions from the Antique Automobile Club of America’s website. Heh.