Re: Salinger and Helprin
Sundeep Dougal (holden@thepentagon.com)
Tue, 08 Jul 1997 02:33:07 +0500
At 12:40 PM 7/7/97 -0500, you wrote:
> Does anyone remember the 1970's Canadian band
>Klaatu (ok, I'm dating myself...)? When their first album appeared,
>the band members chose to remain anonymous. Rampant speculation soon had it
>that they were really the Beatles, out to do something artistic without the
>Beatles moniker.
I've heard of them, yes, but not heard them. Any good? Always bings to mind
the story about Chaplin entering in a contest for Charlie Chaplin
look-alike and standing third...
>Well, my question is, when JDS dropped out of public view
>and ceased pubishing, was there ever speculation about him publishing
>under a pen name or is it the case that his style, as distinctive as it
>is, or was, would leave no room for these types of questions.
Unfortunately, I've been very tardy with completing the FAQ entries on
my page that I had promised Matt (Kozusko) I'd have up and running
more than a month back.
Till then --- though Tim or Will could possibly tell you more --- a
visit to Stephen's excellant Bananafish Page would give you quite a bit
of the lowdown on:
Giles Weaver
William Wharton, or indeed,
S.K. Barnett
Gordon Lish
all suspected of, or claiming to be, at various times, being JDS...
(As for JDS's distinctive style, I really do not know. I mean, atleast to
me Hapworth may well have been written by somebody else, given its unusual
format (atleast as far as the Salinger canon is concerned) of being from
the p.o.v. of an 8-year old). Much like that apocryphal Chaplin story, I
wouldn't really be surprised if someone else (say, Gordon Lish) were to
walk away with being more JDS-like than old JDS himself (in the flight of
fancy hypothetical scenario that he were indeed to participate in such a
contest).
Despite all the rumour, JDS himself is on record (Hamillton cites this in
In Search Of...) that he's not published any thing "in the last twenty
years". (That was 1986, so unless he's been churning out something since
then as CHamil@aol...
Sonny
Sonny
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Sundeep Dougal (Sonny, to friends), Holden Caulfield, New Delhi, INDIA
http://www.thepentagon.com/holden