The bestest puttiest longbreak

A notesheet entry for the Oxen of the Sun episode - "Tarnally dog gone my shins if this aint the puttiest chance yet" (Phillip F. Herring, Joyce's Ulysses notesheets in the British Museum, p. 248, 92-3) - confirms that Joyce's source (in this attempt to reproduce American speech) was Bret Harte:

Eternally dog-gone my skin ef this ain’t the puttiest chance yet.

Bret Harte, "Muck-a-Muck", ch. 4, in Condensed Novels

The Condensed Novels were first published in 1867; they were reprinted in Harte's Tales of the West, a copy of which was in Joyce's library.

Harald Beck

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