Re: A Perfect Day for German Poetry


Subject: Re: A Perfect Day for German Poetry
From: Cecilia Baader (ceciliabaader@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Nov 12 2001 - 02:20:29 GMT


--- Valérie wrote:
> When I first read "A perfect day...", I thought that the german poet was
> Hölderlin. How are you that sure Salinger was referring to R.M. Rilke?

You really can't be sure in this instance. There is no clarification
beyond German poet in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", though one could
argue that it is Rilke based upon the many mentions of Rilke in other
stories.

> Cecilia wrote he was somewhat obsessed with him: could you give more
> details?

There's a couple of mentions of Rilke in Salinger's very small canon: in
"Franny" one of the fellow young men on the platform asks Lane about what
he thinks about "that bastard Rilke." In "The Inverted Forest", there's a
mention of Clara's Rodin -- Rilke's wife Clara was an artist who worked
for Rodin. It seems to me that there's also a mention in "Seymour: an
Introduction", though I cannot quote it for you, since I don't have the
book handy.

So given how very small Salinger's body of work is, the likelihood that it
is Rilke is very high, based upon the number of mentions the man got.

> (I'm reading 'Letters to a young poet', so I'm especially
> interested in this question...)

That's terrific. I think everyone in the world should read them. For
those who haven't read them, I've made it easy for you. I have them up on
my website:

http://www.geocities.com/c_baader

Click on the Letters to a Young Poet link.

Something else that Salinger and Rilke have in common: they both attended
Military School as young men and they both hated it.

Regards,
Cecilia.

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