German, Swedish, Japanese, Spanish, and Polish. In popular culture In Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Esmé Squalor's name is a reference to this short story. The Canadian band For Esmé also references the story in their name. The track "Letters & Packages" from American Football's American Football EP (1998) contains many lyrical references to this short story. We Are Scientists' 2006 album is titled With Love and Squalor. Belle and Sebastian's track I Fought in a War on their album Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant is inspired by the atmosphere in this short story. Abandoned film version In 1963, film and TV director Peter Tewksbury approached Salinger about making a film version of the story. Salinger agreed, on condition that he himself cast the role of Esmé. He had in mind for the role Jan de Vries, the young daughter of his friend, the writer Peter de Vries. However, by the time that Salinger and Tewksbury had settled on the final version of the script, Jan had turned eighteen and was considered by Salinger to be too old for the part. The film was never made. References Bibliography Slawenski, Kenneth. 2010. J.D. Salinger: A Life. Random House, New York. Short stories by J. D. Salinger 1950 short stories Works originally published in The New Yorker World War II short stories