Salinger Jerome David. Just Before the War with the Eskimos

"Just Before the War with the Eskimos" is a short story by J. D. Salinger, originally published in the June 5, 1948 issue of The New Yorker. It was anthologized in Salinger's 1953 collection Nine Stories, and reprinted for Bantam in Manhattan: Stories from the Heart of a Great City in 1954. It is a tale of adolescent alienation and redemption in a post-World War II setting. It focuses primarily on fifteen-year-old Ginnie Mannox's meeting with her classmate Selena Graff's older brother, Franklin.
Poet and New Yorker editor Dorothy Parker described the story as being “urbane, clever, and absolutely well-written.” At the time of its publication, it confused yet nevertheless delighted its audience.