Salinger flees

One of Salinger's many first rate stories, "For Esme -- With Love And Squalor," was published on this day in 1950. Reaction to it, however, hastened his sprint away from visible fame. Read the story at "Today In Literature."

I've always envied Salinger, Pynchon, and the days earlier in my career when writers weren't expected to have charisma so they could go out and become patent medicine salesmen.

clipped from www.todayinliterature.com The story's popularity would also accelerate Salinger's lifelong attempt to control or run from fame. In 1953 Salinger agreed to allow his British publisher, the respected Hamish Hamilton, to bring out his edition of Nine Stories under the title For Esme -- With Love and Squalor. When the collection did not do well in England, Hamilton sold the paperback rights to Ace Books, a specialist in cheap, mass-market imprints. In the mid-50s, they reprinted the collection with a cover that featured a tacky blonde and a lurid blurb-line: "Explosive and Absorbing -- A Painful and Pitiable Gallery of Men, Women, Adolescents and Children." By the time Salinger discovered what had happened it was too late for any intervention, besides tearing up his remaining contracts with Hamilton.