Subject: Re: Is "For Esmé" for real?
From: Will Hochman (hochman@southernct.edu)
Date: Thu Dec 13 2001 - 00:26:13 GMT
My student, Allison is working on a thesis that connects Salinger's
ideas about women in his stories to what we are learning about his
life. However, I think that Salinger is not a writer who draws
heavily or directly from his own experience in life. Nonetheless, all
writers use their life experiences in what they write and I think we
might consider what we know and don't know.
Salinger not only fought in D Day (at Utah beach) but he was involved
in some other battles where the fighting was fierce. Ian Hamilton
does a good job of tracking down most of Salinger's war record and
it's clear that the writer experienced many of the horrors of war. At
the end of the war he was hospitalized for psychological reasons and
married his doctor. Clearly, he was affected by his fighting life and
yet there is no existing evidence that he was as deeply troubled at
Sergeant X seemed to be...although I expect a good laugh or two from
Scottie about the author marrying his shrink.
If there was an actual orphaned young girl that Salinger met in
England, there might be letters but we can at least deduce that
Salinger's daughter didn't know of a real life Esme. I think she
would have mentioned that because she does discuss how real many of
Salinger's characters were for him.
Although I doubt there's an actual Esme, I think it's likely that
Salinger met and knew young girls and used some of that experience in
his writing. It may also be possible that he saw Esme in some of his
"young girl" girl friends.
Salinger has always guarded his personal life and eschewed
biographical details as a way to understand him or his fiction. I
think it's impossible for writers not to use the stuff of their own
lives to make literature, but that "stuff" is usually so distilled
and manipulated for the purpose of good story telling that it stops
being biographical very quickly. This is not always true, but in
Salinger's case, I think it's fair to say that his biographical stuff
is more traceable when looking at story locations than at actual
characters. For example, Salinger came from a small family with no
visible Seymour prototype. Nonetheless, there are some prep school
friends of Salinger's that claim he was very much like Holden. I'm
guessing these claims are based on their own interpretations of
Catcher and not certain Salinger would think that was true.
Anyway, there isn't any biographical evidence of a real Esme that I
know of, but I'm glad the question was raised, will
-- Will HochmanAssistant Professor of English Southern Connecticut State University 501 Crescent St, New Haven, CT 06515 203 392 5024
http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/willz.html
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