Go See Eddie

“Go See Eddie” is a work of short fiction by J. D. Salinger published in the University of Kansas City Review in December 1940. The story is included in the 2014 Salinger collection Three Early Stories.

Plot
Helen, an aspiring actor, becomes romantically involved with Phil Stone while visiting Chicago. Phil, a married man, has introduced beautiful Helen to a socially exclusive world of wealth and dissipation. She thrives in this milieu, amusing herself by playing the  femme fatale.

Helen’s brother Bobby, a booking agent, is appalled that his sister, a good-natured and decent-spirited young woman, has been traduced by this pretentious crowd. Bobby, fearing that Helen’s good character will be distorted, encourages her to contact Eddie Jackson, who is producing a local stage play. Helen agrees to disengage from Phil and his degenerate friends and pursue her acting career.

Background
After his first success seeing his short story [The Young Folks” (1940) published in  Story, Salinger made various story submissions to a number of journals which responded with rejection slips. “Go See Eddie” was repeatedly turned down by Whit Burnett at Story, by Esquire, and by a number of other journals.

Dejected, Salinger briefly considered becoming a playwright and adapting “The Young Folks” to a stage play in which he would perform the lead character. After a month long sojourn in Canada, he returned to the USA fully re-committed to pursuing a career as a short-story writer.

“Go See Eddie” was ultimately accepted for publication by University of Kansas City Review, “an academic magazine with limited circulation,” appearing in its December 1940 edition.

Theme
“Go See Eddie” is one of a number of Salinger’s uncollected stories that deals with “characters who become involved in degrading, often phony social contexts.” An examination of “social manners [and] the corruption of innocence” the story, “though slight in range, foreshadows Salinger’s more searching explorations of innocence either threatened or lost” according to literary critic John Wenke.