Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Bunch of pixies!
I hadn't paid much attention to Salinger. Among that generation of writers, I read Updike, Steinbeck and Percy intensely and thoroughly, but didn't find others highly interesting.
Now I've gained a lot more respect for Salinger. UK Guardian covers a new trove of letters Salinger wrote when he was starting his career. He had just been accepted by the New Yorker.....
"God and Harold Ross alone know what that bunch of pixies on the staff are doing with my poor script."
Bunch of pixies! Perfect.
The odd thing is that everyone except Ross knew the New Yorker writers were a bunch of pixies. Ross had an antique countrified view of amorphodites as a sort of rare semi-mythical creature. He was convinced he had never encountered one, even while he employed a dozen of them.
¶ 11:50 AM 
