For Esmé with Love and Squalor

"For Esmé with Love and Squalor" is a short story by J. D. Salinger. Originally published in "The New Yorker" on April 8, 1950, it was anthologized in Salinger's "Nine Stories" two years later. (While the story collection's American title is "Nine Stories", it is actually known as "For Esmé with Love and Squalor" in most countries.) "For Esmé" is an Army sergeant's (referred to only as Sergeant X) recollection of a meeting he had with a young girl, Esmé, before he was sent into combat. His strange but loving relationship with Esmé helps him to endure the squalor of war. Lack of purity and innocence in the adult world, love of childhood itself, and the power of words and writing are among the story's themes.

The short story was immediately popular with readers; less than two weeks after its publication, on April 20, Salinger "had already gotten more letters about "For Esmé" than he had for any story he had published."cite book |last=Alexander |first=Paul |authorlink= |title=Salinger: A Biography |year=1999 |publisher=Renaissance |location=Los Angeles |id=ISBN 1-58063-080-4 p. 144-5.] The story was referred to by Salinger biographer Paul Alexander as a "minor masterpiece,"cite book |last=Alexander |first=Paul |authorlink= |title=Salinger: A Biography |year=1999 |publisher=Renaissance |location=Los Angeles |id=ISBN 1-58063-080-4 p. 144-5.] and "Time" magazine has called it "the warmest and best of the "Nine Stories"."cite news |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,938775,00.html |title=Sonny: An Introduction |publisher=Time |date=1961-09-15 |accessdate=2007-04-12]

There has been speculation that Sergeant X and Buddy Glass are the same person,Fact|date=April 2007 or that Sergeant X and Seymour Glass are the same person.Fact|date=April 2007 However, since it is mentioned in the story that Sergeant X has an older sibling and Seymour does not, this is unlikely. Another theory proposed is that Sergeant X is a separate character. Also possible is that Walt Glass, an otherwise unimportant member of the Glass family, wrote the letter. This would be logical, because it is known that Walt served in the army. In addition, he has a number of older siblings. However, Sergeant X served in the European Theater of WWII and not the Pacific Theater. Also, Sergeant X, the narrator of the story, is alive years after the end of World War II, while Walt Glass died in 1945, as told in Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut.

Cultural references

*In Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" series, the character Esmé Squalor is one of several literary references.
*The story is mentioned in Daniel Handler's (Lemony Snicket) The Basic Eight.
*Punk-rock band Jawbreaker references the story in their song "For Esmé", which seems to address Sergeant X.
*Indie band American Football refers to the story in the song "Letters and Packages".
*Indie rock band We Are Scientists named their debut album in 2006 "With Love and Squalor".
*In February 1977, "Esquire" published, "For Rupert - with no promises" as an unsigned work of fiction. This was the first time in its 44 year history that "Esquire" hadn't identified a fiction writer. Readers speculated that it was the work of J. D. Salinger. As for the story, the signals are quite clear: first-person singular, names of the Glass family in "For Esmé with Love and Squalor", events from the story "For Esmé with Love and Squalor". However, Esquire editor-in-chief Gordon Lish soon revealed himself as the author. Lish said, "I tried to borrow Salinger's voice and the psychological circumstances of his life, as I imagine them to be now. And I tried to use those things to elaborate on certain circumstances and events in his fiction to deepen them and add complexity." The Wall Street Journal 2/25/1977
*Rock band from the former Yugoslavia, Bijelo dugme has one of their most popular songs named "Za Esmu" ("For Esmé" in Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian) on their 1984 album. The song is written by Goran Bregovic, their frontman at the time.
*Esme is the name of one of the major characters in Andrew Bomback's first novel 'You're too wonderful to die'. There are obvious similarities between his and Salinger's character.
*Esmé is the name of a minor character in Joe Meno's novel, Hairstyles of the Damned. It is not the character's real name, however; she admits she "got [the name] from a book."

References