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"Birthday Boy" and "Paula"
The Ransom Center of the University of Texas at Austin possesses a number of Salinger letters and manuscripts in its archives. Among them are two unpublished short stories, both undated. One of these stories is titled "Birthday Boy" and the other remains untitled. The untitled piece is possibly an unfinished version of the story "Paula", considered until now to be lost. It appears probable that the story entitled "Birthday Boy" is Salinger's lost 1946 piece "The Male Goodbye." Here is a short summary of both stories:
"Birthday Boy" (1946?)
5-6 pp typed
The short story "Birthday Boy" is accompanied by a letter from Salinger to John Woodburn which refers to "both sets of proofs". Although undated, the letter probably dates to 1951, the year that Woodburn published The Catcher in the Rye. However, it's also likely that the letter does not reference Catcher, but a short story sent to placate the editor instead. Salinger's relationship with Woodburn was brief and somewhat bizarre.
"Birthday Boy" is set in a hospital where a young man, Ray, is visited by his girlfriend, Ethel. Ethel's arrival opens the story which consists primarily of their strained conversation. It is Ray's twenty second birthday, a fact which his father, who had previously visited, was unaware. While most of Ethel and Ray's initial interaction avoids the reason for Ray's hospitalization, we soon learn that he is undergoing rehab for alcoholism.
Ethel attempts to make pleasant small talk and read Ray a book but he is cynically uninterested. After feigning a sexual interest in Ethel with a playful grope, Ray pressures her to sneak in "a lousy drop" of liquor and hide it in a perfume bottle. When Ethel refuses, Ray's true colors emerge and he curses her in front of the doctor telling her "if you come back here, I'll kill you."
Perhaps it's too late for Ethel just as it appears to be too late for Ray. As he will later do in his story "Just Before the War with the Eskimos", Salinger places the burden of meaning on the last line of the story. As Ethel boards the hospital elevator it "descended with a draft. Chilling [her] in all the damp spots."
Reading this story, we realize that Ethel and Ray's relationship is diseased and doomed. We also realize that Ray's alcoholism has infected him with a spiraling alienation and callousness which is contagious. Ethel's refusal to face these facts and her insistance to pursue her illusions will be her downfall. We have no doubt that, despite Ray's warning, she will be back the next day. And that it indeed will eventually kill her.
Untitled or "Paula" (1941)
9-10 pp type with notations
The untitled manuscript at the Ransom Center is less a story than a series of scenes not yet sewn together. Whether or not this is some form of Salinger's lost story "Paula" is pure speculation. However, in a letter dated October 31 (1941), Salinger states that he is "finishing a horror story (my first and last) called 'Mrs. Hincher.' " Undoubtedly a reference to the story described here, Salinger's letter dates its completion to late 1941 or early 1942.
The central characters are a couple, Frank and Paula Hincher. Paula, who has previously been told by her doctor that she is unable to have children, claims to instinctively realize that she is pregnant. Paula connives that she will stay in bed the entire course of her pregnancy, telling her husband "I so desperately want our baby to be born safely, darling. I'm afraid of falling. I'm afraid of a thousand things." She directs her husband to tell friends and neighbors that she's gone to help her ailing sister in Ohio, fearing that if they knew the truth "they'll all laugh." To reinforce the ruse, Paula encourages her husband to spend weekends in Cape Cod fishing while claiming to be visiting Paula at her sister's. With Frank's indulgent agreement, Paula remains in bed, spending her time reading magazines, playing cards, and dramatically reading David Copperfield aloud to her husband. Paula's needs are fulfilled by Frank and the maid, both of whom rush to her side summoned by a bell which she keeps at her bedside. Months pass in this way. The Hinchers continue the ruse for nearly a year.
The first five to six pages of the manuscript are linear and easy to follow. However, midway through the story, the manuscript becomes confused. There are cross-outs, notations, and a complete shift in point of view. Some lines read more like notes to be completed later than a continuation of the story. While Paula's husband has previously been referred to only as "Mr. Hinchner", he now abruptly becomes "Frank". Until this point a third person narrative, the story suddenly shifts to a first person narration by Frank Hinchner's business partner Bud Edmundson. Bud's narration is similar to Holden Caulfield's as he speaks directly to the reader: (speaking of Frank) "You should have heard his voice. I mean you could hardly hear him."
After a year, Frank Hinchner finally confides the truth of the situation to his business partner Bud Edmunsun. He confesses that Paula's sister was never sick and that Paula has spent the bulk of the year cloistered in bed. While Paula claims to have given birth to a baby girl two months previous, she won't allow Frank into the room and he has never seen the child. Claiming that she needs time to bond with the baby, Paula refuses to leave her room which she now keeps locked, only accepting food, baby bottles, and other necessities through a crack in the door.
One day, Paula tells Frank that the baby should have a playmate or some child near it occasionally, believing infancy to be a child's most formative period. Frank has the maid bring her 3 year old niece to visit the child. After visiting, Frank interrogates the girl when she comes out from the bedroom. "Did you see the baby? What's it look like?" The three year old answers that it is a "little baby and it can't talk" and is sleeping in the crib.
Two weeks later, overcome by frustration, Frank breaks down the door to the bedroom. Inside the room Frank is stunned to find Paula, "naked as a baby" except for bright red ribbons in her hair, crawled up into a fetal position and laying in the crib. Calling her husband "the meanest man I've ever met", Paula throws Frank out of the house.
Bud Edmunsun advises Frank to take Paula away on vacation where the two can sort things out. The ending of this story is a whisper of the future "A Perfect Day for Bananafish." The Hinchners travel to Florida. In a hotel lobby, Frank becomes unexplainably violent and is restrained by the hotel manager and elevator operator. He is sent away to an asylum. Paula goes back home to Ohio and resumes a normal life as a librarian.
Further Information on "Birthday Boy"
The manuscript has several editorial corrections on the first page. One note reads "Hold. Consult." Another note, partially erased, asks that the manuscript be "set up in 12 point."
Holocaust Notes
Another Salinger manuscript - consisting of two quotations about Nazi Germany - is one page, typed, undated. The first quotation concerns the virtues of native German rhubarb over the "alien lemon." The quotation is drawn from the Nazi tract "New Basis of Social Research"
The second quotation is from the New Yorker, May 1, 1948, about a crematorium built in Chelmo, Poland specifically for children. The Nazis sent thousands of orphans there for execution.
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