Re: Academic Salinger Conference Presentation
Paul Kennedy (kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca)
Mon, 15 Mar 1999 15:05:41 -0500 (EST)
--Some time ago, I tried to get something going on the topic of Allie's
>> baseball mitt. I wondered aloud (if it's possible to do so in cyberspace?)
>> what specific poems people thought might have been inscribed thereon.
>
>I've always imagined Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop for Death"
>and something, anything, by Dylan Thomas.
GREAT suggestions! I've always secretly suspected that (as an honourary New
Yorker, and DEFINITE Dodger sympathizer....) Mr. Thomas drank himself to
death after reading the box scores of some disastrous Dodger outing in a
1953 NY Post....
>
>If Buddy had relayed the information, we'd have another tome: Allie's
>Glove: An Introduction. And it might not even make it to the actual
>poetry, leaving us all in suspense.
>
Sounds like fertile ground for an aspiring author, Tim.........
.....but back to the first question: There would have to be something by
Wm. Blake inked onto the back of the baseball mitt's thumb, where Allie
could look for inspiration between pitches.... In fact, I'm sure the
concept of 'holding eternity in the palm of your hand' has something to do
with snagging a line drive up the middle, in the bottom of the ninth, with
the bases loaded, and two men out....
I'm SO GRATEFUL for the image of a naked Blake on a tree branch in the back
garden reading PARADISE LOST with his wife!!!!!!!! Who brought us that
image? Was it you, Camille? (If so, I'll almost forgive you for the slur
on Dostoyevsky--which I'm actually checking out with some Russian friends....)
Cheers,
Paul