Author | J. D. Salinger |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Short stories |
Publisher | The Devault-Graves Agency |
Publication date | 2014 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | |
ISBN | 978-0989671460 |
Three Early Stories is a posthumous short story collection by American writer J. D. Salinger, published in 2014 by The Devault-Graves Agency. The book includes three stories: "The Young Folks", "Go See Eddie" and "Once a Week Won't Kill You".
As the title indicates, the stories included in the book are among the first Salinger ever published, dating back as early as 1940. However, they had not previously been collected in book form. Two of the stories, "The Young Folks" and "Once a Week Won't Kill You", were originally published in Story magazine, while "Go See Eddie" was originally published in The University of Kansas Review (now known as New Letters ). [1]
The collection also includes new illustrations, created by Anna Rose Yoken, to accompany the stories. [2]
In 2014, The Devault-Graves Agency, a Memphis-based independent publisher co-founded by writer Tom Graves, made world literary news by announcing the publication of the first "legally sound" book by Salinger in over 50 years. [3] [4] [5] The book collects the first two short stories ever published by Salinger, "The Young Folks" and "Go See Eddie", and a later one, Once a Week Won't Kill You", published during his World War II period. The agency discovered that those three stories had never been registered to Salinger, unbeknownst to the Salinger estate according to some reports. However, The Devault-Graves Agency applied for and received a copyright for the book as a unique anthology, thus preventing other publishers from publishing the three stories collectively. [6]
Three Early Stories was also published in six foreign-language editions. The Devault-Graves Agency brought suit against the Salinger Trust for what it considered interference with its foreign marketing of the book. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] The agency dropped the lawsuit when it believed that the Salinger Trust would no longer interfere with the book’s marketing in those countries where the copyright of Three Early Stories was upheld. [12] [13] The agency also claimed it would not try to market the book in countries where the Salinger Trust still held copyright to the three stories in question. The copyright issues involved in the case have caused it to become an important case in the area of international copyright law. [14]
"The Young Folks" was Salinger's first published work, written in 1939 and given to Whit Burnett, later appearing in the March/April 1940 issue [15] of Story magazine. [16] It takes place at a New York cocktail party and details the emptiness of the conversation between a young woman and a male college student. [17]
First published in 1940, "Go See Eddie" is one of J. D. Salinger's first short stories. [18] Initially submitted to Story magazine and then to Esquire before being accepted by The University of Kansas City Review, now known as New Letters , this short story was forgotten for decades, before being uncovered in 1963 by Salinger's biographer Warren French. This story was republished in Fiction: Form & Experience (1969) and it is now in the public domain.
The story centers on two siblings, Bobby and Helen, and their maid Elsie. Bobby comes to see Helen who is grooming herself. He tries to convince her of several things. The first is to pursue a job with one of his friend, Eddie, and his second motive is to convince her to not commit adultery with a married man. He complains of her promiscuity and the disagreement escalates. After a brief fight, Bobby tells Helen about a rumour that she is seeing another man as well, which she denies, and the lunch he had with the wife of the man who is committing adultery with Helen. After a last attempt at telling her to go see Eddie, Bobby leaves. Helen reflects on what has transpired and starts to rectify the situation by possibly cancelling the affair. She then calls the other guy with whom she is rumoured to have an affair.
Published in the November/December 1944 edition of Story, "Once a Week Won't Kill You" deals with the departure of a soldier for combat in Europe and the soldier's request that his wife spend more time with his aunt when he is gone. Salinger wrote the story in Devon, England, where he was stationed in the spring of 1944 in the lead-up to the Normandy landings.
The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by American author J. D. Salinger that was partially published in serial form in 1945–46 before being novelized in 1951. Originally intended for adults, it is often read by adolescents for its themes of angst and alienation, and as a critique of superficiality in society. The novel also deals with themes of innocence, identity, belonging, loss, connection, sex, and depression. The main character, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage rebellion. Caulfield, nearly of age, gives his opinion on a wide variety of topics as he narrates his recent life events.
William Patrick "W. P." Kinsella was a Canadian novelist and short story writer, known for his novel Shoeless Joe (1982), which was adapted into the movie Field of Dreams in 1989. His work often concerned baseball, First Nations people, and Canadian culture.
Holden Caulfield is a fictional character in the works of author J. D. Salinger. He is most famous for his appearance as the lead character and narrator of the 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. Since the book's publication, Holden has become an icon for teenage rebellion and angst, and is considered among the most important characters of 20th-century American literature. The name Holden Caulfield was initially used in an unpublished short story written in 1941 and first appeared in print in 1945.
"A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is a short story by J. D. Salinger, originally published in the January 31, 1948, issue of The New Yorker. It was anthologized in 1949's 55 Short Stories from the New Yorker, as well as in Salinger's 1953 collection Nine Stories. The story is an enigmatic examination of a young married couple, Muriel and Seymour Glass, on vacation in Florida. It is the first of his stories to feature a member of the fictional Glass family.
Franny and Zooey is a book by American author J. D. Salinger which comprises his short story "Franny" and novella Zooey. The two works were published together as a book in 1961, having originally appeared in The New Yorker in 1955 and 1957 respectively. The book focuses on siblings Franny and Zooey, the two youngest members of the Glass family, which was a frequent focus of Salinger's writings.
Uncle Wiggily Longears is the main character of a series of children's stories by American author Howard R. Garis. He began writing the stories for the Newark News in 1910. Garis penned an Uncle Wiggily story every day for more than 52 years, and published 79 books in his lifetime. According to his obituary in the Chicago Tribune, a walk in the woods in Verona, New Jersey was his inspiration. The books featured work by several illustrators, notably Lansing Campbell. Other illustrators of the series included George L. Carlson, Louis Wisa, Elmer Rache, Edward Bloomfield, Lang Campbell, and Mary and Wallace Stover.
"For Esmé—with Love and Squalor" is a short story by J. D. Salinger. It recounts an American sergeant's meeting with a young girl before being sent into combat in World War II. Originally published in The New Yorker on April 8, 1950, it was anthologized in Salinger's Nine Stories two years later.
"The Laughing Man" is a short story by J. D. Salinger, published originally in The New Yorker on March 19, 1949; and also in Salinger's short story collection Nine Stories. It largely takes the structure of a story within a story and is thematically occupied with the relationship between narrative and narrator, and the end of youth. The story is inspired by the 1869 Victor Hugo novel of the same name: The Man Who Laughs.
"Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes" is a short story by J.D. Salinger, initially published in the July 14, 1951 issue of The New Yorker, and later within the larger collection of Salinger's short works, Nine Stories. Over the span of a few telephone conversations, the story surrounds three adult characters and the remainder of their evening after leaving a party.
Shoeless Joe is a 1982 magic realist novel by Canadian author W. P. Kinsella that was later adapted into the 1989 film Field of Dreams, which was nominated for three Academy Awards.
"Go See Eddie" is a work of short fiction by J. D. Salinger published in the University Press of Kansas|University of Kansas City Review in December 1940. The story is included in the 2014 Salinger collection Three Early Stories.
Jerome David Salinger was an American author best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger published several short stories in Story magazine in 1940, before serving in World War II. In 1948, his critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" appeared in The New Yorker, which published much of his later work.
"Mrs. Hincher" is an unpublished short story by J. D. Salinger.
"The Last and Best of the Peter Pans" is an unpublished short story by J. D. Salinger.
"The Magic Foxhole" is an unpublished short story by J. D. Salinger.
Whit Burnett was an American writer and educator who founded and edited the literary magazine Story. In the 1940s, Story was an important magazine in that it published the first or early works of many writers who went on to become major authors. Not only did Burnett prove to be a valuable literary birddog for new talent, but Story remained a respectable though low-paying alternative for stories rejected by the large-circulation slick magazines published on glossy paper like Collier's or The Saturday Evening Post or the somewhat more prestigious and literary slick magazines such as The New Yorker. While Story paid poorly compared to the slicks and even the pulps and successor digest-sized magazines of its day, it paid better than most of, and had similar cachet to, the university-based and the other independent "little magazines" of its era.
Salinger v. Random House, Inc., 811 F.2d 90 is a United States case on the application of copyright law to unpublished works. In a case about author J. D. Salinger's unpublished letters, the Second Circuit held that the right of an author to control the way in which their work was first published took priority over the right of others to publish extracts or close paraphrases of the work under "fair use". In the case of unpublished letters, the decision was seen as favoring the individual's right to privacy over the public right to information. However, in response to concerns about the implications of this case on scholarship, Congress amended the Copyright Act in 1992 to explicitly allow for fair use in copying unpublished works, adding to 17 U.S.C. 107 the line, "The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors."
Salinger is a New York Times best-selling biography by David Shields and Shane Salerno published by Simon & Schuster in September 2013. The book is an oral biographical portrait of reclusive American author J. D. Salinger. It explores Salinger's life, with emphasis on his military service in World War II, his post-traumatic stress disorder, his subsequent writing career, his retreat from fame, his religious beliefs and his relationships with teenage girls.
Thomas Alan Graves is an American journalist, nonfiction writer, and novelist. He is best known as the author of Crossroads, a biography of blues musician Robert Johnson. He is also known for his work as a producer and writer for the film Best of Enemies. He co-owns the independent publishing company, The Devault-Graves Agency, and is a tenured Assistant Professor of English at LeMoyne–Owen College in Memphis.
Neither Salinger in his lifetime nor his estate after his death has ever authorized the publication of a volume of Salinger's registered early short fiction which appeared in magazines between 1940 and 1965. Reprints of his early stories have appeared under the auspices of Esquire and The New Yorker, to which Salinger stories had originally been sold.
A little-known short story might be a clue.