Subject: Re: JDS and 'The New Yorker'
From: Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Date: Thu Oct 05 2000 - 14:34:47 GMT
On Thu, Oct 05, 2000 at 11:21:38AM -0700, citycabn wrote:
> her mother by long-distance telephone. The first rewrite was sent back, but
> the second one--which Salinger now was calling 'A Fine Day for
> Bananafish'--was accepted and printed in January 1948. Its title in the
> magazine was 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish.' The week it came out, John
> Cheever wrote to Gus Lobrano, 'I thought the Salinger piece was one hell of
> a story.' "
Interestingly, in Margaret Salinger's book, she describes how JDS's
father or grandfather (I forget, and in trying to preserve the book I
didn't mark it up, so if another reader can cite the page, that would
be great) used to take "Jerry" to the beach and, holding the child in
the water, look there for bananafish. So, Salinger picked up this
image of Seymour holding Sybil, peering into the water for
"bananafish," from his father or grandfather at some point long before
he conceived the story. Peggy doesn't dwell on it (frustratingly; it
would have been interesting to hear some of what she thought about it
and the story), but it's alluring to think that this childhood idyll
got fused with a story of such horror to create the looking-glass
atmosphere of "A Perfect Day for Bananafish."
In massive rewrite, of course.
Thanks for the quote, Bruce; I agree that there are a few choice bits
in the Yagoda book that shed light on Salinger's "coming of age" with
the New Yorker.
--tim o'connor
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