"I've served my time in Hell"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Fred, I can't believe I'm mistaken about this.  I still haven't turned up my (photo)copy, as we've just moved and, despite my best preventive efforts, virtually nothing is findable.

So the question is, Who are you going to believe ? Me or your own lyin' eyes ?

That's a joke.  I'm still looking, though, and will tell you when (yes, dammit, *when*) the book shows up, regardless of what may or may not be in it.

If I'm wrong, I'll be happy to fess up.  At least the 1917 text is real !

Jon

Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Fred Shapiro
Subject: Re: "I've served my time in Hell"
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On Sat, 7 May 2005, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> "Our Hitch in Hell." The author was Frank B. [Bernard] Camp (1882 -
> ?1967), and the poem appeared in his collection, _Mexican Border
> Ballads_ (Douglas, Ariz.: F. B. Camp, 1916). It was revised and
> reprinted in Camp's _American Soldier Ballads_ (L.A.: G. Rice & Sons,
> 1917). A Google search reveals that it was more than once adapted and
> passed on anonymously.

I have just obtained a photocopy of F. B. Camp, Mexican Border Ballads
(1916). In quickly looking through this I do not see "Our Hitch in Hell"
or anything resembling it in that book, assuming that all the pages were
photocopied properly. Is it possible that the above is mistaken?

Fred


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Fred R. Shapiro Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
Access and Lecturer in Legal Research Yale University Press,
Yale Law School forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu http://quotationdictionary.com
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