Re: JDS quoted: Franny NOT pregnant
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@hotpop.com)
Thu, 16 Sep 1999 11:06:05 +1000
citycabn wrote:
> "The main worry of the editors at 'The New Yorker' was the possibility
that
> many readers could think Franny...might be pregnant. Since this would
have
> been a scandal in the mid-1950s, the editors believed Salinger needed to
> resolve in his mind whether or not she was pregnant, and then reveal that
> some way in the story. In point of fact, Salinger said in a letter to
> Lobrano [his editor], Franny was *not* pregnant. So he suggested that a
> small addition be made in the story; he wanted to insert in one key scene
> the line of dialogue, 'Too goddam long between drinks. To put it
crassly.'
> If that didn't resolve the trouble, Salinger said, he had two long
additions
> that he would rather not use since they were obvious."
>
> --pp. 182-3 of Salinger: A Biography by Paul Alexander
Brilliant !!! This would have to be the first public statement I've ever
heard from Salinger about the whole Franny pregnancy thing. I'm so happy I
now have it on record. Someone please put this in the FAQs, and order me a
copy of the book despite all! (:
Camille
verona_beach@hotpop.com