Go See Eddie
| "Go See Eddie" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by J. D. Salinger | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publication | |
| Published in | University of Kansas City Review |
| Publication date | December 1940 |
"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 (later renamed New Letters in 1970) in December 1940. The story is included in the 2014 Salinger collection Three Early Stories.[1][2]
Plot
[edit]Helen, an aspiring actor, becomes romantically involved with Phil Stone while visiting Chicago. Phil, a married man, has introduced beautiful Helen to a socially exclusive world of wealth and dissipation. She thrives in this milieu, amusing herself by playing the femme fatale.
Helen’s brother Bobby, a booking agent, is appalled that his sister, a good-natured and decent-spirited young woman, has been traduced by this pretentious crowd. Bobby, fearing that Helen’s good character will be distorted, encourages her to contact Eddie Jackson, who is producing a local stage play. Helen agrees to disengage from Phil and his degenerate friends and pursue her acting career.[3][4]
Background
[edit]After his first success seeing his short story [The Young Folks” (1940) published in Story, Salinger made various story submissions to a number of journals which responded with rejection slips. “Go See Eddie” was repeatedly turned down by Whit Burnett at Story, by Esquire, and by a number of other journals.[5]
Dejected, Salinger briefly considered becoming a playwright and adapting “The Young Folks” to a stage play in which he would perform the lead character. After a month long sojourn in Canada, he returned to the USA fully re-committed to pursuing a career as a short-story writer.[6]
“Go See Eddie” was ultimately accepted for publication by University of Kansas City Review, “an academic magazine with limited circulation,” appearing in its December 1940 edition.[7]
Theme
[edit]“Go See Eddie” is one of a number of Salinger’s uncollected stories that deals with “characters who become involved in degrading, often phony social contexts.”[8] An examination of “social manners [and] the corruption of innocence”[9][10] the story, “though slight in range, foreshadows Salinger’s more searching explorations of innocence either threatened or lost” according to literary critic John Wenke.[11]
Footnotes
[edit]- ^ Slawenski, 2010 p. 36
- ^ Wenke, 1991 p. 166: Selected Bibliography
- ^ Wenke, 1991 p. 7: Plot summary
- ^ Slawenski, 2010 p. “...about a beautiful but self-centered femme fatale who devastates the lives of those around her to save herself from boredom.”
- ^ Slawenski, 2010 p. 33: “...other attempts had suffered a similar fate…”
- ^ Slawenski, 2010 p. 33-34
- ^ Slawenski, 2010 p. 35-36
- ^ Wenke, 1991 p.6-7: “Helen aligns herself with the forces of affectation and illusion.”
- ^ Wenke, 1991 p. 6: quoted here
- ^ Slawenski, 2010 p. 33: “...a tense dialogue piece…”
- ^ Wenke, 1991 p. 6-7: “...explores the conflict between nice and phony worlds…discern[ing] an informing opposition between the sensitive outsider and assertive vulgarian.”
Sources
[edit]- Slawenski, Kenneth. 2010. J. D. Salinger: A Life. Random House, New York. ISBN 978-1-4000-6951-4
- Wenke, John. 1991. J. D. Salinger: A Study of the Short Fiction. Twaynes Studies in Short Fiction, Gordon Weaver, General Editor. Twayne Publishers, New York. ISBN 0-8057-8334-2
