When J.D. Salinger’s death was announced yesterday afternoon, tributes immediately flooded the internet from just about everyone in the entertainment business. Twitterers and pundits alike said Salinger’s character Holden Caulfield will live forever as the quintessential teenage male, predating the badboys, the Beats, and the bohemian hipsters so much a part of the current generation. And they are right: he inspired a huge number of authors, including Haruki Marakami, Sylvia Plath, and Tom Robbins, among hundreds of thousands. J.D. Salinger The Myth, on the other hand, was responsible for everything from the James Earl Jones character in Field of Dreams to public persona of James Dean and the entire oeuvre of Steven Spielberg.
With his quintessential teen angst novel “The Catcher In The Rye” still selling in the neighborhood of 250,000 copies per school year, the notorious recluse cannot escape this kind of publicity, even in his grave. The best way, we thought, to honor and respect such a private man was to do away with the essay format that most websites decided on and simply stick to the words by and about him, the words even he would’ve approved of.
1. “I have trouble writing simply and naturally. My mind is stocked with some black neckties, and though I’m throwing them out as fast as I find them, there will always be a few left over. I am a dash man and not a miler, and it is probable that I will never write a novel.” – in a 1945 letter to Esquire, composed at the age of 26.
2. “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.” – Holden Caulfield in “The Catcher In The Rye.”
3. “It’s been a nightmare.” – on the success of “Catcher,” as recalled by fan Jim Krawczyk, in a story on NPR.
4. “One of my friends had a dog-eared copy of Catcher in the Rye that he asked Salinger to sign. Salinger refused, saying it would mean nothing to him to sign my friend’s book. He added ‘That was a silly book when I wrote it 25 years ago and it’s a silly book today.'” Jane from Fairfax, Virginia, as quoted in the New York Times.
5. “I went to my local library, in Brighton, Mass., asked for ‘Catcher,’ and was told that I would need a note of permission from my parents. The librarian glared at me as she said this.” – New York Times blogger Charles McGrath
6. “I’m aware that many of my friends will be saddened and shocked, or shock-saddened, over some of the chapters in ‘The Catcher In the Rye.’ Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all my best friends are children. It’s almost unbearable for me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf out of their reach.” – Salinger
7. “If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she’s late? Nobody.” – Holden Caulfield
8. “You can’t ever find a place that’s nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you’re not looking, somebody’ll sneak up and write “Fuck you’ right under your nose.” – Holden Caulfield
9. “I mean, it also turned people into assassins, you know?” – a restaurant owner, on “Catcher” and the death of Salinger, as quoted on the New Yorker website.
10. “The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.” – Salinger, from the story “De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period.”
11. “You raved and you bitched when you came home about the stupidity of audiences. The goddam ‘unskilled laughter’ coming from the fifth row. And that’s right, that’s right — God knows it’s depressing. I’m not saying it isn’t. But that’s none of your business, really.” – Zooey in “Franny and Zooey.”
12. “Charlotte once ran away from me, outside the studio, and I grabbed her dress to stop her, to keep her near me. A yellow cotton dress I loved because it was too long for her.” – from “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters.”
13. “An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.” – Salinger
14. “I don’t really deeply feel that anyone needs an airtight reason for quoting from the works of writers he loves, but it’s always nice, I’ll grant you, if he has one.” – from “Seymour: An Introduction.”
15. “Do you know what I was smiling at? You wrote down that you were a writer by profession. It sounded to me like the loveliest euphemism I had ever heard. When was writing ever your profession? It’s never been anything but your religion.” – from “Seymour: An Introduction.”
16. “Please accept from me this unpretentious bouquet of very early-blooming parentheses: (((()))).” – from “Seymour: An Introduction.”
17. “Marriage partners are to serve each other. Elevate, help, teach, strengthen each other, but above all, serve. Raise their children honorably, lovingly and with detachment. A child is a guest in the house, to be loved and respected – never possessed, since he belongs to God. How wonderful, how sane, how beautifully difficult, and therefore true.” – from “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters.”
18. “Bunch Of Phonies Mourn Salinger.” – the Onion‘s lead headline last night.
19. “A red mark meant, if I die before I finish my work, publish this ‘as is,’ blue meant publish but edit first, and so on.” – Salinger, as quoted by daughter Margaret Salinger in her autobiography, indicating we may someday see his unpublished work.
20. “I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetary. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you’re dead?” – Holden Caulfield