J. D. Salinger_ A Life - Kenneth Slawenski [130]
The land was located deep in the woods, at the end of a long road that climbed a hill. At the summit, the woods had been cleared to reveal a small, red, barnlike structure that Russell identified as “the house.” The clearing containing the property melted into a meadow that fell downward so abruptly that it resembled a cliff. At the bottom of the meadow, a brook laced into the lushness of the surrounding woods. From the top of the meadow, the view was magnificent: before them lay the Connecticut River Valley with breathtaking vistas of rolling fields and woodlands and misty mountains beyond.
In contrast to the beautiful setting, the house was in a very poor state. It was actually a barn, dilapidated beyond livability. Renovated untold years before to include a two-story living room with exposed beams, a tiny loft, and a small kitchen off to the side, it offered all the deprivations of the frontier. It had no running water, no bathroom, and no heat to buffer the harsh New England winters. Despite these shortcomings, Russell quoted a price that would have exhausted Salinger’s savings. He could afford to buy the property but would have no funds left to renovate it.
When Salinger expressed an interest in the property regardless, his sister was appalled. She thought it inconceivable that her brother would entertain the notion after being raised on Park Avenue. A buyer for Bloomingdale’s who had married a successful garment merchant, Doris’s entire life had been lived in style. But Salinger knew deprivation firsthand. He had slept countless nights in frozen foxholes and had struggled for comfort in renovated garages and barns before. Moreover, this was his chance to fulfill the dream of Holden Caulfield, to escape to a cabin in the woods, far away from the phoniness of society, deep within his own inverted forest. Here was the ideal place to write and meditate, a place where he could release the characters of his imagination. Before year’s end, he had placed a binder on the 90-acre property. Realizing Holden’s dream, he would remain in Cornish for the rest of his life.24
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When “De Daumier–Smith’s Blue Period” was rejected by The New Yorker on November 14, 1951, Salinger began to revamp an old story that took place on a cruise ship.25 How much work Salinger put into the story before he left for vacation in March is unclear, but his letters indicate that he wrote little during those months. Not until the autumn of 1952 did he regain his writing stride, enabling him to complete the manuscript by November 22. The gap in time can be sensed while reading “Teddy.” The story’s beginning has a distinctly looser feel than the remainder of the story. It also seems apparent that, while negotiating his next book with Little, Brown and Company, Salinger intended to include “Teddy” in the collection before it was actually finished. This influenced the story, causing Salinger to deliberately contrast and complement the collection’s intended opening story, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish.”
Excited by The Gospels of Sri Ramakrishna, Salinger rushed to present its values through his work. With the story “Teddy,” messages that he had previously embedded into his stories as personal meditation, therapy, or acts of cleansing were made completely public for the first time, shared with readers as duty to his faith.
In 1952, most Americans thought their way of life superior to that of Eastern cultures. Salinger was well aware of this chauvinism. It was clear to him that his reading audience was not going