J.D. Salinger Dies at 91
I read The Catcher in the Rye in my early twenties. I rushed it a bit because someone had told me how it was a book that had to be read at a certain time in your life to be fully appreciated. I get it now, at the time I thought I was too old. The Catcher in the Rye was J D Sailnger’s only novel and was published in 1951. It gradually achieved a status that made him cringe a little. For a long time, were talking decades here, Salingers book was a kind of universal rite of passage for a million adolescents, a bible for the disenchanted youth.
After Mark Chapman shot John Lennon in 1980 he said he had done it to promote the reading of Sailinger’s book. About a year later, when he popped out to bang out Ronnie Reagan, John Hinckley Jr left behind a copy of the book in his hotel room.
Now, JD’s book didn’t just attract the crazy’s and loopos, for the regular folk, we read it and somehow sympathized with Holden Caulfield, Sailinger’s petulant, yearning and border line manic depressive young hero. Sailinger created Caulfield at the very moment that American teenage culture was being born. In a way, he created the rebellious youth, and he didn’t like it one bit.
Sailinger was a born recluse and turned his back on success and adulation, becoming the Garbo of letters, famous for not wanting to be famous.
He died on Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., where he had lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. He was 91.
If you haven’t read this book then do so, let’s hope it’s not too late.
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A note from Sarah
I read once that JD Salinger has been writing books and storing them in a vault to be released upon his death. Never knew if it was an urban legend or just some stupid made-up story. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
American novelist JD Salinger, author of one of the most influential American tales of teenage angst, The Catcher In The Rye, has died at 91.
Hopefully, the myth is true and we’ll have bunches of new, amazing stories to read!
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