J. D. Salinger_ A Life - Kenneth Slawenski [76]
All the dead soldiers.
*Of all the troops to storm Utah Beach on D-Day, none penetrated farther into enemy territory than the 12th Infantry Regiment.
*During June 1944 alone, the 12th Infantry Regiment lost 76 percent of its officers and 63 percent of its enlisted men.
*The 12th remained attached to the 30th Infantry Division until August 13, when it was certain the danger had passed.
*Salinger separated Hemingway’s professional persona from his personal one. He told Elizabeth Murray that Hemingway was kind by nature but had been posturing for so many years that it now came naturally to him. Salinger disagreed with the underlying philosophy of Hemingway’s work. He said that he hated Hemingway’s “overestimation of sheer physical courage, commonly called ‘guts,’ as a virtue. Probably because I’m short on it myself.”
*Later in 1944, Salinger claimed to have written eight stories since arriving overseas in mid-January and three since D-Day. The September 9 account refers only to stories penned since April 14, when Burnett first offered to collect Salinger’s stories into a book. This leaves two stories to be written between mid-January and mid-April. If Salinger’s account is correct, these stories may be chapters of The Catcher in the Rye or are now completely lost. It is also possible that Salinger wrote his lost story “Daughter of the Late, Great Man” at this time.
*The byline of “The Magic Foxhole” may indicate Salinger’s realization that the story would go unpublished. It is the more vulnerable “Jerry Salinger” rather than the usual, more professional “J. D. Salinger.”
*The 28th Infantry Division consisted of members of the Pennsylvania National Guard and wore a red keystone, a symbol of the state, as a shoulder patch and was called the Keystone Division. To the Germans, this keystone resembled a bucket. Because so many of the 28th Division died at the Kall Trail, the Germans renamed it the “Bloody Bucket Division,” a title that has since become a point of pride.
*The regiment was issued greatcoats that absorbed the rain and hampered movement. Most soldiers quickly discarded them, but some later froze to death.
*“A Boy in France” was reprinted in The Saturday Evening Post Stories, 1942–1945, by Random House, 1946, pages 314–320, making it the second Salinger story to appear in book form.
*Salinger was probably oblivious to the opening hours of the Battle of the Bulge when he penned his letter home and may have been with the 1st Battalion, on leave, on December 16 and not called into action until the following day.
*“This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise” was reprinted in The Armchair Esquire, 1958 & 1960 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1960), pp. 187–197.
*Holden’s boarding school is spelled Pentey in this story, as it is in “I’m Crazy,” completed by early 1944. Like The Catcher in the Rye, “Slight Rebellion off Madison” spells the school Pencey; but because “Slight Rebellion” is known to have undergone several alterations before its publication in December 1946, it is uncertain what spelling Salinger originally used. As a result, the spelling of Holden’s preparatory school cannot be used to determine the age of this story.
*Also handwritten at the bottom of this document is what appears to be an outline for the collection. It differs markedly from Burnett’s suggestion that the anthology be split up into three sections that revolve around the war. Instead, Ober suggests they be categorized as “I. The Girl, II. The Boy, III. Holden’s Story.”
*According to Jack Sublette in his 1984 annotated bibliography of J. D. Salinger, Collier’s fiction editor, Knox Burger, stated in 1948 that “Ocean” “contains the greatest letter home from