Re: the "Maynard on Salinger" article

Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Fri, 07 Aug 1998 15:46:00 -0500 

Will said:

> One thing has been bothering me though--why do you suppose mr. salinger
> didn't just use a pen name?

In the permeable-membrane world of book publishing, it's probably less and
less likely to get away with it.  And even for the books that get dropped
on the floor like so many raw eggs, there's usually a minimum amount of
publicity necessary, and it would be hard to manage without the story
leaking.

(For instance, the writing teacher and editor Gordon Lish, here in New
York, has made claims, over the years, that he was responsible not only for
Raymond Carver's discovery, but for some of the work; that is, he claimed
to have done so much rewriting that some stories were as much his as they
were Carver's.  I have heard this claim of his from several sources during
the last few years, but I thought, well, this is ludicrous, and if it were
true, the word would have to have leaked out.  Guess what?  There's a story
placed in this Sunday's NY Times Magazine on this very topic.  I'm
salivating already, given my high regard for Carver and my admiration of
Lish's support of writers.  But recall that he is the man who wrote the
bogus story in Esquire ["For Rupert, With No Promises"], so it's tough to
know what to believe.)

Joe Klein managed to get away with Primary Colors, under the name
"Anonymous," for a while, until a combination of textual analysis and
old-fashioned gossip kind of did him in.

William Wharton (who was once said to be Salinger in disguise) has managed
to keep his real name from being massively known, but still, it has leaked
out.

I think Steven King wrote under another name (Bachman?), but that became
known, too.  I don't recall if it was a leak or just something that became
common knowledge.

Anne Rice has published historical erotica (I think that's what it's been
labeled) under a pseudonym.  I am sure someone here must know the name she
used; I myself don't remember.

In short, I suspect that it's hard to keep a secret these days when so many
hands have access to so many fax machines and photocopiers and Internet
access points.  And aside from that, he wouldn't afford himself much cover
if he pursued the Glass family as his subject, and I suspect that even
without the Glasses, his increasingly baroque writing voice would reveal
him pretty quickly.

--tim