Welcome to the list! > My name is Larissa Heap, and I am a Junior at the University of Michigan. > I, like many other people have become very interested in J.D. Salinger and > his work through class assignment, but I feel my interest is now going > well beyond. I am in the process of writing a paper about _Nine Stories_ > and have been searching the internet the entire day for information. The > more I > find (or don't find which is more often the case) the more intrigued I > have become. In the short term, check out the critical writing about Salinger; you'll find them in your library and will glean a lot more there than you will pick up online. (Note to Will: Do you have a list of a dozen or so critical works you've consistently relied on?) > I am quite unsure of the number of people on this list, I am just > interested in comment and discussion which this group may generate. About 250 people. A few join every day. A few quit. Or their accounts vanish. > have become much more than information for a paper. My main curiosities > at the moment lie in the connection between Salinger and his characters. > Admittedly, Holden Caufield is somewhat autobiographical, but so many > other characters are greatly similar. Does anyone know any more about this > phenomenon? How does Salinger's Zen Buddhism relate to his characters and > work? See if you can get your hands on a copy of Eberhard Alsen's "Salinger's Glass Stories as a Composite Novel." He does a nice job of it. --tim