Salinger

by David Shields

  “I grew up in this”: J. D. Salinger, letter to Jean Miller, June 3, 1949.

  “I planted some vegetables yesterday”: J. D. Salinger, letter to Jean Miller, April 30, 1953.

  “You don’t think you’ll”: Ibid.

  “What a good girl you are”: J. D. Salinger, letter to Jean Miller, October 5, 1953.

  “I was oddly touched”: J. D. Salinger, letter to Jean Miller, undated.

  “It still seems completely”: J. D. Salinger, letter to Jean Miller, October 1953.

  “[In a letter to Michael”: Sharon Steel, TimeOut New York, March 8, 2010.

  10: IS THE KID IN THIS BOOK CRAZY?

  “My boyhood was very much”: J. D. Salinger, interview by Shirlie Blaney, Daily Eagle (Claremont, NH), November 13, 1953.

  “I’d rather be the catcher”: J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, p. 173.

  “longer, autobiographical piece”: J. D. Salinger, letter to Whit Burnett, 1940.

  “I stood there—boy I”: J. D. Salinger, “I’m Crazy,” Collier’s, December 22, 1945.

  “I’ve taken a small place”: J. D. Salinger, letter to Gus Lobrano, October 12, 1949.

  “During Salinger’s brief stay”: Peter De Vries, quoted in Paul Alexander, Salinger: A Biography (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1999), p. 137.

  “He’d come over and express”: Jon De Vries, quoted in Timothy Dumas, “The Return of Peter De Vries,” Westport Magazine, April 2006.

  “I was eating a sandwich”: Robert Giroux, “The Art of Publishing No. 3,” interview by George Plimpton, Paris Review, no. 155 (Summer 2000).

  “ ‘Mr. Salinger is here,’ ”: Robert Giroux, ibid.

  “Possibly by now you’ve”: Gus Lobrano, letter to J. D. Salinger, January 25, 1951.

  “Imprisoned”: Gus Lobrano, January 25, 1951.

  “Tactless”: Robert Giroux, “The Art of Publishing No. 3,” interview by George Plimpton, Paris Review, no. 155 (Summer 2000).

  “He didn’t like it,”: Robert Giroux, quoted in Al Silverman, The Time of Their Lives: The Golden Age of Great American Publishers, Their Editors and Authors (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008), p. 27.

  “Was evidently prudent enough”: Louis Menand, “Holden at Fifty,” The New Yorker, October 1, 2001.

  “I can’t explain what I”: J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, p. 122.

  “It means a great deal”: William Maxwell, Book-of-The-Month-Club News, 1951.

  “I think writing is a”: J. D. Salinger, Book-of-the-Month-Club News, 1951.

  “Anyone who has read”: J. D. Salinger, dust jacket copy, The Catcher in the Rye, 1951.

  “J. D. Salinger was born in”: J. D. Salinger, author’s note, The Catcher in the Rye, 1951.

  “I seldom care to know”: J. D. Salinger, contributor’s note for “Down at the Dinghy,” Harper’s, April 1949 [note published in Harper’s, February 1959].

  “I think, even if I”: J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, p. 204.

  “Here is a novel about”: Paul Engle, Chicago Daily Tribune, July 15, 1951.

  “So real it hurts”: Irene Elwood, Los Angeles Times.

  “Sponsoring a brilliant, new young”: Clifton Fadiman, , Book-of-the-Month-Club News, July 1951, quoted in James Lundquist, J. D. Salinger, p. 54.

  “short story guy”: James Stern, “Aw, the World’s a Crumby Place,” The New York Times Book Review, July 15, 1951.

  “The strange, wonderful language”: Nash K. Burger, “Books of the Times; Adolescence Speaking for Itself,” The New York Times, July 16, 1951.

  “I was impressed by”: William Faulkner, quoted in Faulkner in the University, ed. Frederick L. Gwynn and Joseph L. Blotner, pp. 246–47.

  “Have you read The Catcher”: Samuel Beckett, letter to Loly Rosset, November 20, 1953.

  “People are always ruining things”: J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, p. 87.

  “I fought alongside him in”: Werner Kleeman, “Lifelong Pal Remembers J. D. Salinger,” The Queens Courier, February 2, 2010.

  “I may give [The Catcher”: J. D. Salinger, The New Yorker, December 1951.

  “If the teenager as we”: Geoff Pevere, “J. D. Salinger, 91: Literary Giant Lived as Recluse,” The Toronto Star, January 29, 2010.

  “Holden Caulfield is the Malcolm”: Jake Gyllenhaal, interviewed by Chelsea Clinton, Interview magazine, February 2003.

  “Holden Caulfield”: Andy Rogers, The Veteran Who Is, the Boy Who Is No More.

  “The mental health professionals”: Andy Rogers, The Veteran Who Is, the Boy Who Is No More.

  “If you sat around there”: J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, p. 142.

  “Salinger’s quarrel”: Andy Rogers, The Veteran Who Is, the Boy Who Is No More.

  “When I was really drunk”: J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, p. 150.

  “I’m aware”: J. D. Salinger, unpublished jacket statement, The Catcher in the Rye, 1951.

  “Among other things you’ll find”: J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, p. 189.

  “If a body catch a”: J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, p. 173.

  “If a body meet a”: Robert Burns, “Comin thro’ the Rye,” The Catcher in the Rye, p. 178.

  “I can be quite sarcastic”: J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, p. 21.

  “One day”: Billy Wilder quoted in Conversations with Salinger, p. 299.

  “The goddam movies”: J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, p. 104.

  “Holden Caulfield is not likely”: Nancy C. Ralston, quoted in Peter G. Beidler, A Reader’s Companion to J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, p. 62.

  11: WE CAN STILL RUN AWAY

  “First published in mid-July”: Pamela Hunt Steinle, In Cold Fear: The Catcher in the Rye Censorship Controversies and Postwar American Character, p. 15.

  “In the fall of 1951”: Paul Alexander, Salinger: A Biography, p. 157.

  “I was not prepared for”: The wife of an editor, quoted in Ian Hamilton, In Search of J. D. Salinger, p. 124.

  “If you want to know”: J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, p. 134.

  “That fall [of 1951], Salinger”: Paul Alexander, Salinger: A Biography, pp. 167–68.

  “Dear Mr. Ross, Just to”: J. D. Salinger, letter to Harold Ross, October 6, 1951.

  “He escaped some of the publicity”: James Lundquist, J. D. Salinger, p. 27.

  “Celebrity is a mask that”: John Updike, Self-Consciousness, p. 252.

  “I know he and his sister”: Margaret Salinger interview with WBUR Radio show “The Connection,” September 14, 2000.

  “[Salinger’s] 90-acre tract of land”: Paul Alexander, “Cornish, New Hampshire: J. D. Salinger Country,” Travel & Leisure Magazine, April 1999.

  “Salinger had bought a small gambrel-roofed cottage”: Paul Alexander, Salinger: A Biography, p. 168.

  “That winter [of 1953]”: John Skow, “Sonny: An Introduction,” Time, September 15, 1961.

  “We have a date”: S. J. Perelman, Don’t Tread on Me: Selected Letters, p. 144.

  “I knew all about him”: Shirlie Blaney, quoted in Ernest Havemann, “The Search for the Mysterious J. D. Salinger: The Recluse in Rye,” Life, November 3, 1961.

  “He seemed to be delighted”: Shirlie Blaney, quoted ibid.

  “[Joyce Burrington] Pierce was a”: Susan J. Boutwell and Alex Hanson, “J. D. Salinger, Recluse of Cornish, Dies,” Valley News, January 29, 2010.

  “My father was a bit leery”: Joyce Burrington Pierce, quoted ibid.

  “Finally I decided”: Shirlie Blaney, quoted in Ernest Havemann, “The Search for the Mysterious J. D. Salinger: The Recluse in Rye,” Life, November 3, 1961.

  “[Salinger] seems to understand children”: John Wain, “Holden and Huck,” The Observer (London), June 8, 1958, p. 17.

  “The best thing, though, in”: J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, p. 121.

  “Leah’s knock on my door”: J. D. Salinger, “A Girl I Knew,�
�� Good Housekeeping, February 1948.

  “Our page came out once”: Shirlie Blaney, quoted in Ernest Havemann, “The Search for the Mysterious J. D. Salinger: The Recluse in Rye,” Life, November 3, 1961.

  “The Windsor High School [paper] came out”: Ernest Havemann, “The Search for the Mysterious J. D. Salinger: The Recluse in Rye,” Life, November 3, 1961.

  “During the preparation of”: Claremont Daily Eagle, November 13, 1953.

  CONVERSATION WITH SALINGER #5

  “Betty Eppes is a reporter”: George Plimpton, quoted in “What I Did Last Summer,” The Paris Review, Summer 1981.

  “In her letter to Mr.”: Edwin McDowell, “Publishing: Visit with J. D. Salinger,” The New York Times, September 11, 1981.

  “I’ve been writing seriously”: J. D. Salinger, contributor’s note for “Down at the Dinghy,” Harper’s, April 1949 [note published in Harper’s, February 1959].

  “I will state this: it”: J. D. Salinger, quoted in Betty Eppes, “What I Did Last Summer,” Paris Review, Summer 1981.

  12: FOLLOW THE BULLET: NINE STORIES

  “So far the novels of this war”: J. D. Salinger, “Backstage with Esquire,” Esquire, October 24, 1945, p. 34.

  “there is a thin”: George Highet, “New Books: Always Roaming with a Hungry Heart,” Harper’s, June 1953.

  “You get off”: J. D. Salinger, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” p. 26.

  “the only great”: Ibid., pp. 7–8.

  “lose control of” to “see more glass.”: Ibid., pp. 8–10, 14.

  “They’re very ordinary-looking” to “through the door”: Ibid., p. 23.

  “raving maniac”: Ibid., p. 13.

  “the belt” to “Sybil’s hand”: Ibid., p. 19.

  “Sybil’s ankles” to “my love”: Ibid., p. 24.

  “regiment” to “steady it”: J. D. Salinger, “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut,” pp. 48-49.

  “the g.d. war is over”: J. D. Salinger, “For Esmé—with Love and Squalor,” p. 160.

  “Why don’t you boys”: J. D. Salinger, “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut,” p. 52.

  “husband was stationed” to “something”: Ibid., pp. 33–34.

  “air-minded” to “M.P.”: Ibid., pp. 27–28.

  “Trenton to New York”: Ibid., pp. 43–44.

  “You know what”: Ibid., pp. 44–45.

  “Ever cut your” to “cute”: J. D. Salinger, “Just Before the War with the Eskimos,” pp. 62–71.

  “bleedin’ like mad”: Ibid., p. 65.

  “draft board” to “or something”: Ibid., pp. 72–73.

  “lovely—the first”: Ibid., p. 77.

  “A few years earlier”: Ibid., p. 82.

  “carpenter’s vise”: J. D. Salinger, “The Laughing Man,” p. 87.

  “face covered with a”: Ibid., p. 88.

  “around the countryside”: Ibid., p. 89.

  “deep but pleasantly” to “escape method”: Ibid., pp. 89–90.

  “the largest personal” to “face”: Ibid., pp. 90–91.

  “best friend”: Ibid., pp. 100–2.

  “two and two together” to “hideous features”: Ibid., pp. 102, 108–10.

  “beloved Black Wing” to “mask”: Ibid., pp. 109–10.

  “in terms of permanently” to “decorously”: J. D. Salinger, “Down at the Dinghy,” pp. 119, 120–24, 130.

  “itching imperceptibly” to “lightning”: J. D. Salinger, “For Esmé—with Love and Squalor,” pp. 133–34.

  “experience levitation” to “camp”: Ibid., pp. 133–35, 137.

  “military-looking” to “sentimental way of life”: Ibid., p. 140, epigraph, pp. 149, 153–55.

  “getting better acquainted” to “all over the place”: Ibid., 156–58, 165.

  “Home sweet home” to “animal”: J. D. Salinger, “Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes,” pp. 178, 180, 186, 188, 181, 182.

  “at best a” to “enamel flowers”: J. D. Salinger, “De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period,” pp. 241, 249–50.

  “wear them whenever” to “thousands of times”: J. D. Salinger, “Teddy,” pp. 274, 276, 284, 287, 294.

  “in this world” to “fictional characters”: Announcement of Salinger’s death, released by Harold Ober Associates, January 28, 2010.

  CONVERSATION WITH SALINGER #6

  “In 1966 I was invited”: Pat York, “Catching J. D. Salinger,” The Huffington Post, February 2, 2010, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pat-york/catching-jd-salinger_b_446863.html.

  13: HIS LONG DARK NIGHT

  “She arrived at the party”: Margaret Salinger, Dream Catcher: A Memoir, p. 7.

  “Her childhood was not one”: Margaret Salinger, “Biographer Margaret Salinger Discusses Her Book on Her Father Author J. D. Salinger,” NBC News Today, September 7, 2000.

  “The black sheets and the”: Claire Douglas, quoted in Margaret Salinger, Dream Catcher: A Memoir, p. 12.

  “I’ve had two invitations”: Letter from Salinger to Miller, undated, 1953.

  “Uncharacteristically, Salinger threw a party”: John Skow, “Sonny: An Introduction,” Time, September 15, 1961.

  “As in any good Scott Fitzgerald tale”: Maxwell Geismar, “The Wise Child and the New Yorker School of Fiction,” in Salinger: A Critical and Personal Portrait, ed. Henry Grunwald, p. 103.

  “Lane had sampled his”: J. D. Salinger, “Franny,” The New Yorker, January 29, 1955.

  “Alienated from her Ivy League boy friend”: Paul Levine, “J. D. Salinger: The Development of the Misfit Hero,” in J. D. Salinger and the Critics, ed. William F. Belcher and James W. Lee, p. 111.

  “ ‘Franny’ is an indictment”: Paul Alexander, Salinger: A Biography, p. 185.

  “The Way of a Pilgrim”: James Lundquist, J. D. Salinger, p. 123.

  “We must pray unceasingly”: The Way of a Pilgrim, p. 9.

  “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy”: The Way of a Pilgrim, p. 10.

  “Stories about his wife”: Henry Grunwald, ed., Salinger: A Critical and Personal Portrait, p. 21.

  “Claire Salinger was attracted”: Arthur J. Pais, Rediff, October 27, 2000.

  “ ‘You have been chosen’ ”: Paramhansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, p. 355.

  “On the train home to Cornish”: Claire Douglas, quoted in Margaret Salinger, Dream Catcher: A Memoir, p. 91.

  “A man may live”: The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, translated by Swami Nikhilananda, chapter 20, “Rules for Householders and Monks,” (Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, West Bengal, India, 1942 and 2006), http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/.

  “We did not make love very often”: Claire Douglas, quoted in Margaret Salinger, Dream Catcher: A Memoir, p. 91.

  “Between extreme indifference”: J. D. Salinger, letter to Swami Nikhilananda, 1972.

  “The importance of ‘Raise High’ ”: Bruce Mueller and Will Hochman, Critical Companion to J. D. Salinger, p. 279.

  “[“Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters”]”: James Lundquist, J. D. Salinger, p. 137.

  “[It is] the best”: John Updike, “Anxious Days for the Glass Family,” The New York Times Book Review, September 17, 1961.

  “I read a bit from the”: J. D. Salinger, letter to Swami Adiswarananda, 1975.

  “ ‘We were up at the Lake”: J. D. Salinger, “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters,” The New Yorker, November 19, 1955.

  “In the story of his wedding”: Ihab Hassan, “J. D. Salinger: Rare Quixotic Gesture,” Western Review, Summer 1957.

  “Salinger kills Seymour”: Subhash Chandra, The Fiction of J. D. Salinger, p. 144.

  “He has learned to live”: Philip Roth, “Writing American Fiction,” Commentary, March 1961, pp. 223–33.

  “When he first came”: Roger Angell, quoted in Paul Alexander, Salinger: A Biography, p. 189.

  “Imagine the most phobic man”: Lawrence Weschler, “Mr. Shawn’s New Yorker: For Nearly Forty Years William Shawn Was a World Traveler—of Sorts,�
� Columbia Journalism Review, March–April 1993.

  “ ‘Zooey’ is an interminable,”: Maxwell Geismar, “The Wise Child and the New Yorker School of Fiction,” in Salinger: A Critical and Personal Portrait, ed. Henry Grunwald, p. 105.

  “Near the end”: Ernest Havemann, “The Search for the Mysterious J. D. Salinger: The Recluse in Rye,” Life, November 3, 1961.

  “In each story”: Alfred Kazin, “J. D. Salinger: Everybody’s Favorite,” The Atlantic Monthly, August 1961.

  “The cumulative effect is bright”: S. J. Rowland, “Love Parable,” The Christian Century, October 6, 1961, p. 1464.

  “During 1958, Salinger had”: Paul Alexander, Salinger: A Biography, p. 202.

  “In letters, he reported”: Phoebe Hoban, “The Salinger File,” New York Magazine, June 15, 1987.

  “He was in New York, working”: New Yorker intern quoted in Edward Kosner, “The Private World of J. D. Salinger,” New York Post Magazine, April 30, 1961.

  “In ‘Seymour,’ Buddy takes up”: William Wiegand, “The Knighthood of J. D. Salinger,” The New Republic, October 19, 1959.

  “It is the idea of compromise”: James Lundquist, J. D. Salinger, p. 142.

  “Self-consciousness gives the story”: Granville Hicks, “J. D. Salinger: Search for Wisdom,” Saturday Review, July 25, 1959.

  “There are one or two more”: J. D. Salinger, “Seymour: An Introduction,” The New Yorker, June 6, 1959.

  “[Since The Catcher in the Rye] Salinger has”: Michael Walzer, “In Place of a Hero,” Dissent, Spring 1960.

  “Yet when I first read”: J. D. Salinger, “Seymour: An Introduction,” The New Yorker, June 6, 1959.

  “It is ‘woman and gold’ ”: The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, translated by Swami Nikhilananda, chapter 7, “The Master and Vijay Goswami,” http://www.belurmath.org/gospel.

  “In February 1962 the telephone”: Gordon Lish, “A Fool for Salinger,” Antioch Review, 1986, pp. 408–15, quoted in Paul Alexander, Salinger: A Biography, p. 221.

  14: A TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE FALL

  “Ever since Jerome David Salinger”: Mel Elfin, “The Mysterious J. D. Salinger. . . His Woodsy, Secluded Life,” Newsweek, May 30, 1960.

  “For Salinger, writing”: Ibid.

  “Jerry works like a dog”: Bertrand Yeaton, quoted ibid.

  “It is sunny at the”: John Skow, “Sonny: An Introduction,” Time, September 15, 1961.