Re: whit burnett

Salinger's epilogue to Hallie and Whit Burnett's Fiction Writer's
Handbook is short--less than two pages. Of note in this piece is the
fact that he remembered a reading Whit Burnett did of Faulkner's
"That Evening Sun Go Down." After blathering about how he should send
Faulkner a letter, Salinger wrote "...that not once, throughout the
reading, did Burnett come between the author and his beloved silent
reader." Figures Salinger would hear the story that way...

However, the part I like most about this piece is Salinger
remembering taking a short story class with Whit Burnett at Columbia
in l939. First of all, there's this line:

"Mr. Burnett simply and very knowledgeably conducted a short story
course, never mugwumped over one."

*****

"Mugwumped" now there's a word
that need reviving!
as in Scottie mugwumps
about not mugwumping

about rhetoric not hiding
or seeking false horizons

*****

Jim's recent enjoyment of a cartoon and a general sense that writing
is self-taught echoes my favorite part of the short essay. Salinger
said of Burnett that "he usually showed up for class late, praises on
him, and contrived to slip out early--I often have my dbouts whether
any good and conscientious short-story course conductor can humanly
do more."

With unusual love and squalor to no one in particular,

will

-- 
	Will Hochman
Associate 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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