Re: the "Maynard on Salinger" article
LeMelon@aol.com
Sat, 08 Aug 1998 16:34:54 -0400 (EDT)
I think it's insane to distrust the motives of a writer that doesn't
necessarily want his work to be read. It seems to me that the only reason you
would rush out to a publisher as soon as you've finished is because you're
hungry for fame or profit.
Some of the best novels (and questionably most of Salinger's works) are
autobiographical, or at least based on the author's life experiences. I think
that if I were to write something so personal as that, I would sooner die than
have it published. Things like that can cause a huge number of problems. A
yet unpublished manuscript written by Sylvia Plath has to remain locked up
until her mother dies, because of what it could cause. Of course, the
knowledge that your daugter wrote something you can't read wouldn't be so
comforting, but it's so often worse than we imagine.
I think the main reason people don't always want their works published is the
personal nature. As Mark Twain said, "The frankest and freest production of
the human mind and heart is a love letter; the writer gets him limitless
freedom of statement and expression from his sense that no stranger is going
to see what he is writing." And if you made the decision to have it
published, you would also have the courage to use your own name. Maybe it's a
question of priorites.
Ellen