The Children's Echelon

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The Children's Echelon

What is it?
- An unpublished short story written in 1944 by J. D. Salinger while he served in World War II. It’s sometimes called The Children’s Echelon or Total War Diary. A copy is housed at Princeton University’s Firestone Library.

What is the story about?
- Presented as eleven diary entries by a young woman named Bernice Herndon. The entries run from January 12 (her 18th birthday) to March 25 of the same year. As the war escalates, Bernice’s views about her friends, family, and the war itself change. The diary even includes a memory of watching children on a carousel.

Background and reception
- Salinger wrote the piece in England, where he was stationed with the 12th Infantry Regiment while preparing for the D-Day invasions. The narrative switches between first-person and third-person narration. The story is long for Salinger’s typical short work—about 6,000 words.
- When submitted to editor Whit Burnett at Story magazine, it received a famously harsh critique: printing such a long piece would be a waste of paper in those times. Salinger later said its failure was mainly due to its length. Biographers describe the work as overlong and somewhat aimless. The editor’s doubts about Salinger’s ability to write a longer work influenced Salinger to focus on shorter pieces that could be connected as a book or published individually.

Current status and significance
- The Children's Echelon was never published. It remains a part of Salinger’s wartime writing and is discussed in biographies as an example of his early development and his struggle with length and form.

Where to read
- A copy is held at Princeton University’s Firestone Library.