Subject: QPB and JDS
From: Raley, Amber (araley@agnesscott.edu)
Date: Mon Jan 14 2002 - 15:07:46 GMT
Fish,
No this is not an advertisement. I happen to belong to a book club that
likes to send out emails with interesting tidbits about authors in the hopes
that it will boost their sales. Last week was JDS. I thought I would post
them to the list. Most of it is very much common knowledge but I found the
Burnett tribute piece (Friday) interesting. Does anyone know where this
statement might have first appeared?
Monday.
The Catcher In the Rye (1951) was both praised and reviled for its author's
note-perfect depiction of the teenage mind. Half a century after its initial
publication, J.D. Salinger's novel has sold over 60 million copies and
continues to sell 250,000 copies a year in America alone. The book was
recently listed in the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the Century. Yet,
almost in spite of its status as a classic, The Catcher in the Rye remains a
de facto handbook for young rebels. It is a rare book that is praised by
literary critics, yet embraced by lonely teenagers.
The Catcher in the Rye begins with its young narrator, Holden Caulfield,
being expelled from yet another boarding school and follows him over the
course of the weekend as he returns home to New York. Although only 16 years
old, Holden already mourns his lost childhood. He fears growing up and
losing his innocence, and becoming a "phony," someone who has sacrificed
their goodness for the sake of success. His adventures back in the city add
to his despair. In one episode, Holden attempts to connect with an
ex-girlfriend by proposing they run away to Vermont, only for her to reject
him. Already self-absorbed, she's an adult phony in the making.
While The Catcher in the Rye incisively captures the existential angst of
America after the Second World War, it also revisits the classic Peter Pan
story. In Holden, young readers find a friend whose troubles mirror their
own and a hero whose ideals inspire them. Growing up is hard to do, and The
Catcher in the Rye continues to find new readers every year precisely
because Salinger's story--by turns funny, mocking, and touching--still rings
true.
Tuesday.
The image of childhood innocence proves significant in J.D. Salinger's
classic novel The Catcher in the Rye. As Holden Caulfield walks along the
streets of New York, he becomes happy at the sight of a young boy singing a
line from Robert Burns's poem "Coming Thro' the Rye": "If a body catch a
body coming through the rye." Later, when Holden's sister Phoebe asks him
what he would like to be, Holden tells her of his desire to be "the catcher
in the rye." What Holden wants is to catch the carefree souls of children
playing in fields before they sell out and become adults.
As a 16-year-old, Holden fears adulthood. He holds onto an ideal vision of
childhood and looks up to his younger brother Allie, who died two years
previously at age 13. Allie was an intelligent, sensitive boy who wrote
poems on his baseball glove to "have something to read when he was in the
field and nobody was up at bat." The image of Allie as an eternal child is
one of the few memories Holden cherishes.
Conversely, Holden believes that adult "experience" corrupts people, turning
them into "phonies" concerned only about status and material possessions.
Holden describes his older brother D.B. as one such phony. D.B. was once a
talented short-story writer who now writes for Hollywood. While Holden
admires and envies his brother's success, he also believes D.B. squandered
his gift to become a "prostitute."
Fearing his oncoming adulthood, Holden prepares to run away. Yet he is
unable to leave once he sees his beloved little sister Phoebe. Having
learned of her brother's plans, Phoebe packs a suitcase and insists on
following him. Ultimately, Phoebe's love for Holden reminds him of the
beauty still to be found in the world. Though Holden dreams of saving the
world from adult phonies, in the end he is the one who needs catching.
Wednesday.
In the 50 years since he first appeared, Holden Caulfield, the hero of The
Catcher in the Rye, has become the prototypical rebel. He is cynical, yet
idealistic; worldly, yet innocent; abrasive, yet sensitive. It is Holden's
contradictions that make him real: To many readers, Holden Caulfield is less
a fictional character, than a friend whose struggle in growing up mirrors
their own coming of age. In fact, Holden's troubled youth is modeled after
his creator, J.D. Salinger.
The son of a prosperous merchant, Jerome David (J.D.) Salinger (b. 1919)
grew up on New York's Upper East Side, where he learned to dislike the
"phoniness" of the privileged. Much like Holden, Jerry Salinger was a
bright, sensitive youth with a sarcastic sense of humor and little interest
in schoolwork. Salinger's grades were so poor that he was expelled from
several prep schools. In one note, a teacher wrote about young Salinger:
"Ability plenty. Industry: doesn't know the word."
Since Salinger spent so much time at boarding schools, it is only fitting
that his classic novel begins at Pencey Prep, which Holden Caulfield
despises for its hypocrisies and pretensions: Pencey Prep advertises "in
about a thousand magazines, always showing some hotshot guy on a horse
jumping over a fence," Holden narrates. He continues scornfully, "I never
even once saw a horse anywhere near the place."
At 15 years of age, Salinger was sent to military school by his parents to
instill discipline and improve his poor grades. Salinger's marks did go up,
and at Valley Forge Military Academy, Salinger began writing his first
stories. Throughout his writing career, Salinger's fiction focused on the
lives of young people. When The Catcher in the Rye was first published in
1951, many critics lauded its author's ability to capture the teenage voice.
Thursday.
In December, 1980, John Lennon was shot outside his home in New York City by
a man named Mark David Chapman. As Lennon lay bleeding to death, Chapman
calmly reread his favorite book, The Catcher in the Rye. About four months
later, President Ronald Reagan was nearly killed in an assassination attempt
by John Hinckley Jr. At the time of the shooting, Hinckley had in his pocket
a copy of The Catcher in the Rye. How is it that Salinger's book could
inspire such horrible acts?
The answer to this gruesome mystery is found in Chapman's own copy of the
book. On the cover page, he had inscribed, "To Holden Caulfield, from Holden
Caulfield." Unable to distinguish fact from fiction, both Chapman and
Hinckley saw themselves as real-life Holden Caulfields, out to save the
world from "phonies and sell-outs." In their troubled minds, violence was
the only way to solve the world's problems.
A close reading of the book shows how Chapman and Hinckley might have
misread The Catcher in the Rye. In chapter three, Holden himself expresses
an ambivalent attitude toward killing. When asked by a friend about a deer
hunter's cap, Holden "closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. 'This is
a people shooting hat,' I said. 'I shoot people in this hat.'" Of course
Holden never kills anyone in The Catcher in the Rye--nor do the vast
majority of the book's readers.
Violence represents Holden's anger toward growing up--something he finally
learns to do. In one scene, Holden attempts to throw a snowball at a fire
hydrant, but decides against it because it looks "too nice and white." It
would seem that both Chapman and Hinckley failed to understand the book's
theme, the loss of innocence and acceptance of the responsibility of
adulthood.
Friday.
In 1939, a young writer named J.D. Salinger stepped into Whit Burnett's
writing class at Columbia University. Burnett later recalled Salinger as the
"dark-eyed, thoughtful young man who sat through one semester... without
taking notes, seemingly not listening, looking out the window." Burnett soon
recognized the 20-year-old writer's talent, however, and he published
Salinger's first story, entitled "The Young Folks," in his literary journal,
Story. In the years to come, Burnett became a mentor and friend to Salinger.
Although Burnett was himself a fiction writer, he is better known today as a
teacher and the founder of Story. With his wife and co-editor, Martha Foley,
Burnett was a keen judge of fresh talent, and along with Salinger's first
story, his magazine also introduced writers like Joseph Heller, Norman
Mailer, William Saroyan, Wallace Stegner, and Carson McCullers to the
reading public.
After finishing Burnett's class, Salinger continued a correspondence with
his former teacher. In 1940, Salinger wrote to Burnett saying that he was
writing an autobiographical novel. This novel, which would take Salinger 10
years to complete, was The Catcher in the Rye.
After his classic novel made him famous and rich, Salinger did not forget
the contribution Burnett made to his writing career. Although Salinger and
Burnett broke off their correspondence after an argument in 1945, Salinger
wrote a moving tribute published in 1975, three years after his mentor's
death: "[Burnett] showed up for class late, praises on him, and contrived to
slip out early--I often have doubts whether any good or conscientious
short-story course conductor can humanly do more. Except that Mr. Burnett
did. I have several notions how or why he did, but it seems essential only
to say that he had a passion for good short fiction." Lucky for Salinger,
Burnett's passion made him a great teacher and mentor.
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