Nine Stories

J.D. Salinger’s Nine Stories (1953) is a collection of stories published between 1948 and 1953, most of which appeared originally in The New Yorker.

In “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” Muriel Glass speaks with her mother from the phone in her hotel room. She tells her mother her concerns about her husband, Seymour, who has returned from the war and is struggling to adapt to his civilian life. On the beach outside, Seymour meets Sybil, a young girl who is afraid to swim. He helps her conquer her fear, taking her into the water and telling her the story of the bananafish, who swims into a hole and, eating too many bananas, becomes too fat to escape. He goes up to the hotel room where Muriel is sleeping, pulls a gun from his luggage, and shoots himself in the head.

“Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut” begins as Mary Jane arrives late for an appointment with her old college roommate, Eloise, at her suburban home. Mary Jane is a secretary and Eloise a homemaker; both are dissatisfied with their lives. As a terrible snowstorm kicks up outside, Mary Jane and Eloise drink cocktails and talk about their past. They discuss the death of Walt Glass, a former boyfriend of Mary Jane’s. Mary Jane falls asleep, and Eloise’s maid asks if her husband can sleep at the house due to the bad weather. Eloise angrily refuses, and then meanly orders her daughter to stop indulging an imaginary friend.



“Just Before the War with the Eskimos” tells the story of Ginnie Mannox, who has played tennis with her friend Serena Graff for five weeks straight. Ginnie, annoyed that Serena always skips out on the cab fare home, goes to the Graff home to demand money. While Serena goes to wake her mother to ask for the cash, Ginnie meets Serena’s brother, Franklin Graff and they chat. When Franklin leaves, Serena comes back with the money, but Ginnie tells her not to worry about it since Serena always supplies the tennis balls when they play.

“The Laughing Man” tells the story of the Comanche Club, an organization for young boys in Manhattan in 1928. The Club is led by a young man called the Chief, a twenty-two-year-old law student who organizes baseball games for the boys. He tells them stories about The Laughing Man, a disfigured outlaw, which the boys enjoy. Chief dates a young woman named Mary who joins in with the Club’s baseball games. When she breaks up with the Chief, he tells a final story where The Laughing Man dies at the end.

In “Down at the Dinghy,” the wealthy Tannenbaum family have inexplicably decided to remain at their summer home past the end of the season, shocking and dismaying two servants, Mrs. Snell and Sandra. The two women have tea in the kitchen to discuss this turn of events when Boo Boo Tannenbaum enters seeking pickles. Her son, Lionel, has decided to run away and is hiding on the boat; she wishes to lure him home. She goes outside and sweet-talks the boy into returning.



In “For Esmé – with Love and Squalor,” a young man remembers his military training in Britain where he met a vivacious and confident young girl named Esmé. She promised to write to him in exchange for his writing a story dedicated to her with ‛love and squalor.’ Years later, the narrator finds himself experiencing a mental breakdown near the end of the war when a package arrives containing the promised letter from Esmé and her father’s watch, which has been broken.

Lee lies in bed with a girl, smoking cigarettes in “Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes.” Arthur, his colleague from the law office, calls demanding to know where his wife Joanie is. Suggesting several possible places that Joanie could be, Lee reasons why she might be there. Arthur vacillates between insulting his wife and declaring her virtues. When Arthur hangs up, Lee and the girl debate their morality. Arthur calls back to say that Joanie has come home, and they will make a fresh start as a couple, which perplexes Lee.

“De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period” begins with the death of the narrator’s mother, forcing him to move to New York to attend school and live with his stepfather. Despising Americans and their vulgarity, he takes a job teaching art for the summer in Montreal. He invents a persona named Jean de Daumier-Smith for the job. All the applications are from talentless Americans except one from a Canadian nun. He writes to her in a familiar way, and she is kicked out of the convent as a result. He angrily rejects all the other applicants and then relents, but the school is shut down for being unlicensed, and he returns to New York.



In “Teddy," a wealthy couple argues in their cabin on a sea cruise. They send their son, Teddy, to fetch his sister. Teddy is accosted by a professor, who offers him an unwanted lecture on reincarnation. Teddy escapes by remembering a swimming lesson, but the professor follows him. As the professor goes downstairs, he hears a girl scream.