you misunderstand, D. i was going to vehemently respond to the placement of both authors so high in pantheon. whether carver was better than salinger or vice versa doesn't really interest me. which is why i chose to leave well enough alone...matt. > Vehemently? Is Salinger so sacred here that we can't admit that there >might another short story writer in the history of writing short stories >who might be as good or better (gasp!) than Salinger was? The absurdity is >more than I can bear. > > >Cheers! > > D.