J. D. Salinger has died

[ghost of miles]

I've read that in his later years Salinger was not particularly a jazz fan. But here's an uncollected story from 1948 that holds some interest--it was originally titled "Needle On a Scratchy Phonograph Record," until the editors at Cosmopolitan (much to Salinger's chagrin) changed it to "Blue Melody":

Needle on a Scratchy Phonograph Record

David, thanks for posting this. I have to confess that this is the first Salinger I've ever read. I thought it was terrific. Quirky, off plumb, whatever. The sort of piece where you can lose track of the narrative in deference to style and nuance. More than once, I laughed out loud, just like I used to when I'd read David Sedaris in the New Yorker. On the basis of this limited exposure, I must make it a point to do Catcher, and soon.

Dave, glad you liked it--it's from the beginning of what many consider to be Salinger's classic period (1948-1955), but he chose not to include in NINE STORIES when that book came out in 1953. There's another story with a rather harrowing ending, "A Girl I Knew," that he also published in 1948 and didn't include either...it's floating around on the Internet, as are nearly all of his uncollected stories. The pre-1948 stuff generally doesn't hold up to his later work, but if you're a Salinger buff it's well worth checking out, especially some of the Gladwaller/Vincent Caulfield stories like "This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise." (Salinger was experimenting with the Caulfield characters throughout the 1940s in various stories...Vincent is a forerunner of D.B.)

[ghost of miles]

Tons of stuff about Salinger in the new New Yorker.