as of 1944 there were 8 titles and 6 caulfield stories (titles not mentioned).
then, as of 1946, there are still the original 8 titles, PLUS 12 titles, of
which i will assume that at least 6 (possibly more?) are caulfield stories.
without further ado, info below. anybody with more info or changes on
something/anything, todd...a date or title or info about the content of a
story, please let me know!
The Young Folks Anthology as of 1944 (according to Hamilton & Alexander)
1. The Young Folks (written 1939, appeared in Story Magazine, March-April
1940)
2. The Long Debut of Lois Taggett
3. Elaine
4. The Last Day of the Last Furlough (Gladwaller story, Vincent Caulfield
appears, Holden is discussed as missing in action, takes place November 1943.
The story appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, July 1944.
5. Death of a Dogface (Soft-Boiled Sergeant)
6. Wake Me When It Thunders (Both Parties Concerned)
7. Once A Week Won't Kill You
8. Bitsy
a. Caulfield Story/CITR Chapter
b. Caulfield Story/CITR Chapter
c. Caulfield Story/CITR Chapter
d. Caulfield Story/CITR Chapter
e. Caulfield Story/CITR Chapter
f. Caulfield Story/CITR Chapter
The Young Folks Anthology as of 1946 (according to Paul Alexander)
1. The Young Folks
2. The Long Debut of Lois Taggett
3. Elaine
4. The Last Day of the Last Furlough
5. Death of a Dogface (Soft-Boiled Sergeant)
6. Wake Me When It Thunders (Both Parties Concerned)
7. Once A Week Won't Kill You
8. Bitsy
9. THE DAUGHTER OF THE LATE GREAT MAN
10. THE LAST AND BEST OF THE PETER PANS
11. I'M CRAZY
12. BOY STANDING IN TENNESSEE
13. THE CHILDREN'S ECHELON (Total War Diary)
14. TWO LONELY MEN
15. A BOY IN FRANCE
16. A YOUNG MAN IN A STUFFED SHIRT
17. THE MAGIC FOXHOLE
18. SLIGHT REBELLION OFF MADISON
19. WHAT GOT INTO CURTIS IN THE WOODSHED
20. THE OCEAN FULL OF BOWLING BALLS
*The Survivors - 1939-1940, Salinger reveals to Burnett that he had recently
pulled out this old (long) story and started looking at it's ambiguous ending.
Re-written in September 1940 with a sure ending and submitted to Story
magazine. This story was turned down and is now lost.
*Am I Banging My Head Against The Wall? (a.k.a. Slight Rebellion Off Madison)
- Written 1940-1941, In October 1941,"The New Yorker" accepted this piece.
It's a sad little story about a prep school boy on Christmas vacation. The
boy's name is Holden Caulfield. The story's disaffected tone was deemed
inappropriate. Salinger says at the time, it was the only piece he'd ever
written that was-at least spiritually-autobiographical. The teenage boy
sitting drunk at the bar was Salinger. "The New Yorker" eventually published a
reworked version of this story after the war, December 1946, renamed "Slight
Rebellion Off Madison."
*The Lovely Dead Girl at Table Six - Written August 1941, Salinger spent a
hard, not overly-productive two weeks at the Beekman Towers (short walk to
Radio City). It was during these two weeks that he wrote this now lost story.
*Paula - Written 1941-1942, Donald Fiene notes that this story was sold to
Stag magazine in 1942, but that it is "no longer in the files." The manuscript
is less a story than a series of scenes not yet sewn together. The central
characters are a couple, Frank and Paula Hancher. Paula claims to be pregnant
and decides that she will stay in bed the entire course of her pregnancy. She
directs her husband to tell friends and neighbors that she's gone to help her
ailing sister in Ohio. Months pass. The Hanchers continue the ruse for nearly
a year. Ultimately, Frank comes home, finds the bedroom door locked. Paula
claims she's having the child. Shortly thereafter, she claims she's had the
child and now needs a crib, baby clothes, etc. However, she won't let Frank in
the room. Frank provides the items she needs. Then, several days later,
frustrated that he's still not being let inside, he breaks the door down and
finds Paula in the crib. This story is at the Ransom Center of the University
of Texas at Austin.
*The Last and Best of the Peter Pans * I have no idea when this story was
written. Unpublished at Princeton*s Firestone Library. The Last and Best of
the Peter Pans is an unpublished work much sought after by Catcher fans due to
it's famous reference to catching a child from crawling off of a cliff. This
story is a heated conversation between Vincent (DB) Caulfield and his mother.
It takes place after the death of Vincent's brother Kenneth (Allie) Caulfield.
The first of three stories authored by Vincent, it is narrated in the first
person. The story opens with Vincent's description of his mother, Mary
Moriarity, who is an actress. Vincent's portrayal of her presents us with a
woman in possession of a strong personality, consumate acting ability, and
striking red hair. He emphasises that rather than simply being his or Holden
or Phoebe's mother, Mary was an enveloping presence in the house. When, at
fifteen, his parents agent, Leon Werblin, drove him from school to see his
parents play in "Romeo and Juliet", Vincent was taken by his mother's role of
"Juliet", relating that, while although she was thirty-eight at the time, he
could "feel" her role and "was watching a young girl in love". Taking place in
the early days of World War II, Vincent has recieved his draft board
questionnaire in the mail. But he is unaware that his mother has intercepted
it and hidden it away from him. Mary, after considering the United States Army
as a possible interlude in her older son's life, has determined the
possibility as being "unsuitable". Five days after it's arrival, Vincent
discovers the questionarre on the floor of the spoon compartment of the
silverware chest. Extremely upset, he confronts his mother. The bulk of this
story is the argument between Mary and Vincent over the questionaire and the
army. Mary defends her actions, stating that Vincent wouldn't be happy in the
army. She compares him to her brother Walter, who was called up to serve in
World War I. Although Walter served willingly, he was unsuited to it. His
unsuitability was displayed in the fact that, no matter what he did, his
"leggings" were always coming undone and his "overseas cap" was always askew.
In an attempt to distract Vincent, soften his mood, and gain the upper hand,
Mary calls Vincent's attention to to his young sister Phoebe. Phoebe, who is
playing outside, comes into view through the window, wearing a new coat that
Mary has recently bought her. Vincent looks at his sister "in her short
darling coat". Then he turns away. Jumping back to the subject, Vincent tries
to impress upon his mother the trouble that he could get into for failing to
return the questionaire within twenty-four hours. He doesn't think that his
mother realizes the significance of what she has done. But his mother gives
him a piercing look that knifes him with the comprehension that she had not
hid the questionaire in the spoon compartment "for the unintentional sake of a
laugh line." Mary then treds on the tenderest of territory - Kenneth's death.
Vincent mentions that while his mother looked slightly afraid to approach the
subject, "she came equipped, as always, to get there". Mary, after having
suffered the loss of one son, is reluctant to introduce another to the
prospect of death. Despite her own pain, she is intent upon relieving the pain
of Vincent, who feels tremendous guilt over the death of Kenneth. She assures
Vincent that he gave Kenneth the best, but Vincent retorts that while Kenneth
needed a top-line (Bernstein) best, he instead got Vincent, a second-rate
best. Vincent then harshly critiques his mother. He tells her that while in a
rush to attend a charity, she asks a blind man for the time. He says that in
an attempt to catch a child from crawling off a cliff, she asks a man with no
legs to catch the child in time. While she doesn't want to see her son be a
soldier, she will open fire on him before he's ever in uniform. At first he
accuses his mother of being "all heart and instinct and no brains" but
reconsiders, adding that, while being smart, she doesn't always think. Vincent
then retreats to his room. There, he contemplates what has just happened,
profoundly sorry. He is sorry for all the people in their ivory towers, sorry
for all the soldiers who can't keep their caps on right, sorry for all of the
second-bests in the world. But most of all, Vincent is sorry that he almost
compared his mother to Svengali, when in actuality she is the last and best of
the Peter Pans.
*The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls - I have no idea when this story was written.
Unpublished at Princeton*s Firestone Library. "The Ocean Full of Bowling
Balls" is largely regarded as the finest of Salinger's unpublished works.
While not having had the opportunity to revue all of the author's unpublished
materials, it is hard to imagine a more important work among them. A good
amount of this story's interest stems from it's relationship to the Caulfield
stories as a body of work, and certainly to The Catcher in the Rye as the
primary work of that group. While continuing the themes of these stories, "The
Ocean Full of Bowling Balls" is the basis of many of them, as it's events
precede them in time. Written by Vincent Caulfield as a self-cleansing
reminiscence, this story goes far to explain the events which lead up to, and
the messages contained in Salinger's later novel. In explanation, the
character of Vincent Caulfield is certainly the same character that we will
come to know as D.B. in Catcher. Likewise, the character of Kenneth Caulfield
is the same character that Salinger will later choose to name Allie. This is
the last day in the life of Allie Caulfield. This story takes place on Cape
Cod. It is unclear whether the Caulfields are staying at their summer home or
permanent residence. Vincent Caulfield, who narrates the story, is about
eighteen or nineteen. Also in the house are his parents, who are actors, his
brother Kenneth, who is twelve, and his sister Phoebe, who was born not long
before the story takes place. Away at camp is Vincent's younger brother,
Holden. Vincent begins his narration with a description of his brother
Kenneth. He paints a portrait of a thoughtful, sensitive, and intelligent boy
so curious that his shoes turned up, as he was always bending down to
investigate things on the ground. Vincent continues, describing his brother's
red hair, explaining that it was so vibrant as to be seen by him at a great
distance. He relates a time that he was playing golf and became aware of his
brother watching him from far off. Further description of Kenneth includes two
of his great loves, literature and baseball. He marries the two by filling his
lefty first-baseman's mitt with entries of poetry that he can read while in
the field. Holden later discovers a quote by Browning on Kenneth's mitt, which
Vincent relays to us: "I would hate that death bandaged my eyes and forebore,
and bade me creep past." While Kenneth's love and knowledge of baseball was
extreme, he stopped going to games after witnessing Lou Gehrig strike out. He
concentrated instead on Literature, which he felt he could better control. A
voracious reader, he cared for both prose as well as poetry, reading great
quantities of both. One Saturday afternoon in July, Vincent, who is a
struggling writer, comes down from his room onto the porch of the house where
Kenneth is sitting and reading. In a somber mood, Vincent coaxes his younger
brother away from his book to tell him the story that he himself has just
written, titled "The Bowler". "The Bowler" is a story of a man whose wife
would not let him do anything. He couldn't listen to sports on the radio, or
read cowboy magazines, or indulge any of his interests. The only thing that
his wife would let him do was go bowling -once a week -on Wednesday night. So,
every Wednesday for eight years the man takes his special bowling ball down
from the closet and goes out. One day, the man dies. His wife faithfully
visits his grave every Monday to place gladioli. One day she goes on a
Wednesday. On her husband's grave she finds fresh violets. Calling over the
caretaker, she inquires as to whom left the violets. The caretaker tells her
that they were left by the same woman who leaves them every Wednesday,
probably the dead man's wife. Infuriated, the woman goes home. That night, the
neighbors hear the sound of crashing glass. The next morning they see a shiny,
new-looking bowling ball sitting on the woman's lawn amidst a shower of broken
window pane. Kenneth's reaction to Vincent's story is not what Vincent
anticipated. He is upset by the ending, accusing Vincent of taking revenge on
the man. He begs Vincent to remove the part of the story where the woman
throws out the bowling ball. Touched by his brother's sentimentality, Vincent
tears up the story. A child with "heart trouble", Kenneth is portrayed as a
spontaneous boy determined to live every moment to the fullest. He convinces
his brother to take him to a place called "Lassiter's" for fresh steamers.
During the drive to Lassiter's, they have a conversation about Vincent's
girlfriend, Helen Beebers. Kenneth tells Vincent that he ought to marry Helen
as she has exceptional qualities. Among them is her tendency to play checkers
without moving her kings from the back row. He then asks Vincent about love
for Phoebe and Holden. Kenneth says that while looking at his baby sister
lying in her crib, he actually feels that he is her. Once at Lassiter's, they
meet a a bald man seated at another table, who is taken by Kenneth and his
quick wit. Then Lassiter, the owner, approaches the table. After cordialities,
Lassister asks Vincent where Holden is, calling Holden "the crazy one".
Kenneth gets extremely upset by this and wants to leave. Lassiter tries to
backtrack and Kenneth decides to let the episode go, warning Lassiter to be
his age. By some instinct, Vincent feels that they both want to drive the five
miles to a certain spot on the beach that Holden has christened "The Wise Guy
Rock". This is a big, flat slab of rock on the ocean and accessed by a series
of jumps from stone to stone. On the rock, they survey the ocean, which
Vincent describes as being calm. There, Kenneth reads a letter that he
received that day from Holden, who is away at camp. Holden's letter is very
funny and riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes that neither brother
would find themselves guilty of. In it, Holden complains about camp which he
says "stinks" and is full of rats. Holden is looking forward to coming home.
In the camp dining room, everybody has to sing a song. A Mr. Grover, who
thinks he is a hot singer, tried to make Holden sing with him but Holden would
not. He would have, but he doesn't like Mr. Grover because he is a rat. Mrs.
Grover too. They smile at you but are very mean whenever they get the chance.
Because Holden refuses to sing in the dining room, he is being ostracized as
punishment. Now, none of the rats are allowed to speak to him. A boy from
Tennessee read the book of Corinthians to Holden and he likes it very much. He
ends the letter by telling Kenneth he misses him and Vincent and asking what
color Phoebe's hair turned out to be -red? After reading the letter, Kenneth
picks up a pebble, examining it for flaws. Emotionally, he laments out loud
what will become of Holden. Using the episode of singing in the dining room as
an example, he states that Holden cannot seem to compromise, -even if he knows
that life will go smoother for him if he does. Kenneth's attitude then
changes, becoming triumphant. With a triumphant look on his face he tells his
brother that if he were to die, he would still stick around. Looking very
happy about something, Kenneth decides to go for a swim. This is against
Vincent's better judgment. The sky grows dark and the ocean grows violent. It
is now full of bowling balls. Vincent begins to discourage his brother from
going into the water, but allows him. Something inside of Vincent realizes
that he should not stop Kenneth although he would like to. He, himself does
not join him. After his swim, as Kenneth is just about out of the water, he is
struck down by a terrific wave. Vincent scoops Kenneth's listless body up from
the beach and frantically races him home, driving the first mile or so with
the brakes on. At home, sitting on the porch, is Holden with his suitcases. He
clumsily tries to help Kenneth. The scene is a frenzy. They call the doctor
who arrives shortly after their parents, who were away at rehearsals. There is
a scene with a boy named Gweer, who is playing with the Caulfields, and
represents the outsider in this story. Gweer asks what happened to Kenneth,
whether it was his heart, and stating that Kenneth was just a kid. Vincent
tells Holden that the ocean was full of bowling balls. Kenneth Caulfied died
at ten after eight that night. The story ends with Vincent's explaining to the
reader his motivation for relaying it. In the telling, he seeks to put his
brother Kenneth to rest. Kenneth has been with both himself and Holden since
his death. Vincent feels that he should no longer be hanging around.
*The Kissless Life of Reilly - Written 1941-1942, unpublished and now lost.
*Bitsy - 1942-1943, A story about a wonderful girl. The ending is unavoidably
happy. This story was turned down and is now lost.
*Rex Passard on the Planet Mars - 1942-1943, A story about a little boy. But
clean as a whistle.
*The Broken Children - Written 1942-1943, unpublished and now lost.
*Boy Standing in Tennessee - Written 1943-1944, unpublished and now lost.
*The Children's Echelon (a.k.a. Total War Diary) - Written May 1944, (1) Six
thousand words long, a hectic, sweet-and-sour diary-form job done by an 18
year old girl. She records the history of her own sad, never meant to be War
Marriage. It's loaded with psychological clues and is in part modeled on Ring
Lardner's "I Can't Breathe." (2) (26 pp. of double-spaced typescript with the
byline JD Salinger). A two-part story in the form of eleven diary entries by
Bernice Herndon with the first entry on January 12, her 18th birthday, and the
last on March 25 of the same but unspecified year. With the war in the
background, Bernice changes her opinion about almost everything she
mentions--her friends, family, and the war. In one entry, Bernice, like Holden
Caulfield, mentions that she loved to watch children at the merry-go-round.
This story is at Princeton's Firestone Library.
*Two Lonely Men - Written 1944, (1) Salinger was posted to the U.S. Army Air
Force Basic Flying School at Bainbridge, Georgia. It was hot, swampy country,j
he reported, country in which William Faulkner and Erskine Caldwell could have
a "literary picnic." This unpublished story speaks of this place's temporary
look. It was an infestation of black, tarpaper-covered barracks and
administration buildings and the earth it sat on was a weird mix of red clay
and rattlesnake skins. It was the lowest-lying swampiest flying school in
America, and boiling hot. The story itself is an account of the odd
relationship between a tough-enigmatic master sergeant and his inept
commanding officer. The story's narrator is a professional short-story writer
who spends most of his time lying on his bunk. Captain Huggins, the CO in the
story, is one of Salinger's most scoffing portraits of the "army misfit": a
chemist in civilian life, Huggins has no idea why he has been put in charge of
an aviation school. He knows nothing of the mysteries of air navigation, the
Morse code, link trainer and the like; indeed, he believes meteorology has
something to do with preventing American aircraft colliding in midair with
stray meteorites. With some feeling, the narrator wonders how such a dolt
could have been grated a commission. The events of the story punish Huggins
rather nastily for his presumption. (2) (27 pp. of double-spaced typescript
with the by-line J.D. Salinger). An unnamed narrator, who worked at Ground
School as a Morse Code Instructor at a United States Army base in the South,
tells the story of a developing friendship between Master Sergeant Charles
Maydee and Captain Huggins. Their friendship grows with nightly games of gin
rummy until Captain Huggins sets his wife up in a nearby hotel and moves in
with her. Maydee and Huggins do not see much of each other then until Huggins'
wife reveals to her husband that she has been having an affair three times a
week with Bernie Farr. Maydee promises to intercede with Huggins' wife, but
Maydee apparently begins having an affair with her. As the story ends, Maydee
tells the narrator that he has asked for a transfer because he doesn't like
Huggins. This story is at Princeton's Firestone Library. This story is at
Princeton's Firestone Library.
*What Babe Saw or Ooh-La-La" - Written 1944-1945, unpublished and now lost.
*The Magic Foxhole - 1944-1945, (1) This unpublished story is set mainly in
France. The hero's name is Gardner, and he is "Gladwaller-esque." Gardner is
wrecked by the war. In combat, he keps on meeting a ghost-soldier dressed in a
strange, futuristic uniform. Gardner interrogates him and discovers that the
"soldier" is his own yet-to-be-born son, a boy called Earl. Earl is now aged
21 and is a combatant, it seems, in World War III. Gardner decides that he
must kill this phantom offspring-if Earl dies, maybe the next war will never
happen. The story ends with Gardner, still hallucinating, confined in a
military hospital-a victim of what the authorities call "battle fatigue." (2)
(21 pp. of double-spaced typescript with the by-line J.D. Salinger). Told in
first person by a compulsive-talking soldier, identified only as Garrity, to
another hitchhiking soldier called Mac, whom Garrity has picked up in a jeep
near "the Beach" soon after D-Day, this story recounts Garrity's association
with a soldier named Lewis Gardner, who suffers severe battle fatigue. Gardner
now stands on the beach and waits to be evacuated. As the story ends, Garrity,
presumably eager to tell this story again or perhaps another one about a
nurse, yells to another hitchhiker. The dramatic monologue-like story suggests
that Garrity suffers from battle fatigue, but to a lesser degree than Gardner.
Gardner is wrecked by the war. In combat, he keeps on meeting a ghost soldier
dressed in a strange, futuristic uniform. Gardner interrogates him and
discovers that the 'soldier' is his own yet-to-be-born son, a boy called Earl.
Earl is now aged twenty-one and is a combatant, it seems, in World War III.
Gardner decides that he must kill this phantom offspring: If Earl dies, maybe
the next war will never happen. The story ends with Gardner, still
hallucinating, confined in a military hospital, a victim of what the
authorities call battle fatigue. This story is at Princeton's Firestone
Library.
*A Young Man in a Stuffed Shirt - Written 1945-1946, unpublished and now lost.
*What Got Into Curtis in the Woodshed - Written 1945-1946, unpublished and now
lost.
*The Daughter of the Late Great Man - Written 1945-1946, unpublished and now
lost.
*The Male Goodbye - Written July 1946, Salinger writes from the Sheraton Plaza
Hotal at Daytona, Florida: "My marriage was a failure-or the participants
were. Sylvia has returned to Europe. We brought each other nothing but the
most violent kind of unhappiness." He says he has written nothing during the
eight months of their marriage but now that she was gone he has finished a new
story that is unlike anything he's done before. It is called "The Male
Goodbye." This story is now lost and there is nothing, beyond the title and
the circumstances, to suggest it might have been an early draft of "A Perfect
Day For Bananafish."
*Birthday Boy - Written 1946-1947, the story is set in a hospital. A young
man, Ray, is visited by his girlfriend, Ethel, on his 22nd birthday. Ray is
recovering from an illness that, while unspecified, seems to have something to
do with alcoholism. The story consists primarily of dialogue. Ray gropes
Ethel, then tries to persuade her to bring him liquor so he may "test
himself." When she refuses, he curses her then orders her to leave. The story
concludes with Ethel riding the hospital elevator to the ground floor, chilled
"in all the damp spots." This story is at the Ransom Center of the University
of Texas at Austin.
FLOATING TITLES (NO INFO FOUND)
? The Fishermen
? Lunch For Three
? Monologue For A Watery Highball
? I Went To School With Adolf Hitler
? A Summer Accident
? The Boy In The People Shooting Hat
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