Blue Melody
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| "Blue Melody" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by J. D. Salinger | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publication | |
| Published in | Cosmopolitan |
| Publication date | September 1948 |
"Blue Melody" is an uncollected work of short fiction by J. D. Salinger which appeared in the September 1948 issue of Cosmopolitan. The story was inspired by the life of Bessie Smith and was originally titled "Needle on a Scratchy Phonograph Record".[1][2][3] Cosmopolitan changed the title to "Blue Melody" without Salinger's consent, a "slick" magazine tactic that was one of the reasons the author decided, in the late forties, that "he wanted to publish only in The New Yorker."[3]
The tragic tale of an African-American jazz singer, the story was inspired by the death of Bessie Smith, who died from injuries suffered in an automobile accident in near Memphis, Tennessee. Due to segregationist prohibitions, she was denied medical treatment by physicians in a hospital reserved for white patients.[4]
