"De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period" is a short story by J. D. Salinger, first published in the May 1952 edition of World Review (London). Declined by The New Yorker on November 14, 1951, the piece was judged too short to contain the complex religious concepts that Salinger attempted to present. It is the only work he is known to have produced in 1951 after struggling with it for over five months. The last Salinger story to appear outside the pages of The New Yorker, it was included in his collection Nine Stories (1953). Summary The point of view is that of first-person narrator John Smith who, as an adult, is reassessing an episode in his life when he was nineteen. He dedicates the story to his late (fictional) stepfather. The events unfold shortly after the death of Smith's mother in 1939, when he and his stepfather return to Manhattan from Paris, where the family had spent the Great Depression years. As housemates, the "exceptionally unpleasant" Smith and his "live-and-let-live" widower stepfather are incompatible developing an Alphonse and Gaston relationship. Seeking escape, Smith applies for, and is accepted, as an instructor at a Montreal correspondence art academy, "Les Amis des Vieux Maîtres" ("Friends of the Old [Art] Masters") operated by Monsieur I. Yoshoto. Smith's résumé overstates his artistic credentials and, further, he falsely claims to be a descendant of Honoré Daumier and a confidant of Pablo Picasso. He adopts the inflated moniker "Jean de Daumier-Smith" and increasingly internalizes his own contrived persona. "Les Amis des Vieux Maîtres" turns out to be Yoshoto's tiny apartment, located in Verdun, a rundown section of Montreal. Mr. Yoshoto, his wife and Smith are the only "instructors" at the correspondence art "academy". Mr. Yoshoto assigns his new employee the task of reviewing and correcting the work of three correspondence students, two of whose crude and inept artwork dismays Smith. The work of the third student, a nun, Sister Irma, intrigues and delights Smith. In his enthusiasm, he pens an officious and patronizing letter of encouragement to the woman. Smith's intervention on the sister's behalf leads to the convent banning further communications with Sister Irma, ending her enrollment at the academy. This rebuff stuns the young man and deepens his egotistical isolation. He summarily dismisses his four remaining students from the school, disparaging their work. To Sister Irma he writes a letter warning that her artistic talent will