Re: JDS quoted: Franny NOT pregnant
jason varsoke (jjv@caesun.msd.ray.com)
Wed, 15 Sep 1999 15:00:23 -0400 (EDT)
On Wed, 15 Sep 1999, citycabn wrote:
> I am not sure how many of the tidbits worth extracting from that mess of a
> biography by Alexander have been posted or discussed. If this one has, my
> apologies.
>
> "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.
to me this sounds as reliable as Rod Sterling telling the TV censors that
the Twilight Zone was not about social commentary.
> 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
keep the quotes comming. They're my life support until I can get a copy
of this Bio.
-j