Re: Salinger again
J.D.Salinger (holden@thepentagon.com)
Fri, 04 Jul 1997 05:45:49 +0500
I resent--and am outraged by--this rank imposture ('charlatanry' and
'humbug' are other words that come to mind, almost readily) and would like
the not-so-gullible to know that though it actually isn't me("I"?
"Myself"? Oh, how I hate sounding almost like a George Harrison
autobiography ) yet even if it were so, my trusty (and rusty, if I may add
parenthetically) old German typewriter has had me pounding its keys far too
long--religiously, painstakingly, regularly, habitually--to make such a
rudimentary mistake as to misspell "avaible".
I can almost see my alter-ego and collaborator, tragically long-deceased,
Buddy Glass exhorting me vigorously to add, however, in a single explosion
of candour, that instead of Short Stories my literary focus in the past
decades has been on longer literary works, that may best be described as
chronicles. It is a long term project, patently an ambitious one, as I had
once correctly forecast; and despite the real enough danger of, sooner or
later, bogging down, perhaps disappearing entirely, in my own methods,
locutions, and mannerisms, I say it with some small satisfaction that
hitherto I have survived pretty doggedly (though whether or not I do indeed
have a dog now is I leave for the magazines to speculate madly about in a
crass efforts to boost their sales). On the whole, though, I continue to be
very hopeful. I still love working on these Glass stories, I've been
waiting for them most of my life, and I think I have fairly decent
monomaniacal plans to finish them with due care and all-available skill.
Please rest assured, however, that they--if and when published, I hasten to
add and append-- most assuredly are *not* (darn! Even my typewriter can
write in *italics*) going to be titled anything even remotely resembling
"My Boyhood Years". (I still love the title "A broken record on a
gramaphone needle". But that I just append by the way and has no bearing on
the subject at hand.)
P.S. I thank one of the Irish personalities on this list who has given me
some food for thought vis-a-vis the possible amendments to the US
Constitution. My lawyers better start working for the fat fees they have
been charging me.
P.P.S I refuse to have to give out my mother's maiden name as Marie Jillich
to prove my authenticity. I consider it too much of an encroachment on my
privacy.
At 06:42 PM 7/3/97 -0400, you wrote:
> For all of those who doubt my authenticity I am really sorry. The fact that
>I have decided to use the "information superhighway" is just to reach to my
>most ardent fans in the most efficient way possible. For the record the name
>of one short story I have completed recently is "My Boyhood Dreams" and
>hopefully I will make up my mind whether or not to publish it openly. I
>really want to just make it avaible to those on this list but yet I am afraid
>there are too many other true readers who would be left out.
>
>Your Friend and Soulmate
>
>J.D.
>
>
At 06:42 PM 7/3/97 -0400, you wrote:
> For all of those who doubt my authenticity I am really sorry. The fact that
>I have decided to use the "information superhighway" is just to reach to my
>most ardent fans in the most efficient way possible. For the record the name
>of one short story I have completed recently is "My Boyhood Dreams" and
>hopefully I will make up my mind whether or not to publish it openly. I
>really want to just make it avaible to those on this list but yet I am afraid
>there are too many other true readers who would be left out.
>
>Your Friend and Soulmate
>
>J.D.
>
>
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Sundeep Dougal (Sonny, to friends), Holden Caulfield, New Delhi, INDIA
http://www.thepentagon.com/holden