J. D. Salinger_ A Life - Kenneth Slawenski [98]
Evidence indicates that the story Salinger submitted to The New Yorker as “A Summer Accident” was actually a version of “The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls.” In his 1962 annotated bibliography of Salinger’s work, Donald Fiene, Salinger’s first bibliographer, reported that “The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls” was submitted to Collier’s in 1950 or 1951.10 Considering that Salinger was bound by contract to submit any story first to The New Yorker, he would have been obliged to submit “The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls” to it before it went to Collier’s and probably did so in 1949—the same year as “A Summer Accident” appears in its rejection files. Whether or not these two stories are indeed the same is interesting but largely academic. More important is what the situation says about Salinger’s affection for “The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls” as a concept. He had abandoned the slicks by 1949, and if a story was rejected by The New Yorker he generally refused to submit it elsewhere. Yet he made a rare exception for “Ocean,” confirming his attachment to it.
The circumstances surrounding The New Yorker’s rejection of “The Boy in the People Shooting Hat” are especially ironic. When Gus Lobrano reviewed it, he was both impressed and appalled. He returned the story to Dorothy Olding along with a long letter conveying his regret over its rejection and his bewilderment over its plot. “Here, alas, is Jerry Salinger’s latest story,” Lobrano began. “I’m afraid it’s impossible to express adequately our distress at having to send it back. It has passages that are brilliant and moving and effective, but we feel that on the whole it’s pretty shocking for a magazine like ours.”11
Readers of The Catcher in the Rye will recognize the title of this story as being descriptive of the red hunting hat defiantly worn by Holden Caulfield. Lobrano’s letter confirms that the story contained a fight between the central character, a boy named Bobby, and a sexually experienced boy named Stradlater. The clash occurred over Bobby’s feelings for an old girlfriend named June Gallagher. According to Lobrano, the magazine considered Bobby’s character to be incomplete and suggested that “possibly the development of the theme of this story requires more space.” Oddly, Lobrano interpreted the story as possessing a homosexual overtone. “We can’t be quite sure whether his fight with Stradlater was caused by his feelings for June Gallagher,” he explained, “or his own inadequacy about his age (which is brought into relief by Stradlater’s handsomeness and prowess), or a suggestion of homosexuality in Bobby.” Lobrano went on to advise that the story required “considerably more length,” lamenting that Salinger had not delivered a “less-complicated theme.” Bobby, of course, was actually an alias for Holden Caulfield, and this story covers much of chapters three to seven of The Catcher in the Rye.
In September, Salinger received a rejection notice from The New Yorker concerning an unnamed story, in all probability “The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls.” Distressed by the decision, it was not until October 12 that he calmed down enough to approach Gus Lobrano over the verdict. He expressed his frustration to the editor but acknowledged how difficult Lobrano must find it to turn down his work.12 He would resume work on his novel about the prep school boy, he said, rather than force the issue with Lobrano.
The timing of Salinger’s return to Catcher may also explain the fate of the remaining rejected stories, five of which are unknown. Considering the quality of the work being