Oh, he had to go out last night and meet this television writer for a drink downtown, in the Village and all. That’s what started it. He says the only people he ever really wants to meet for a drink somewhere are all either dead or unavailable. He says he never even wants to have lunch with anybody, even, unless he thinks there’s a good chance it’s going to turn out to be Jesus, the person — or the Buddha, or Hui-neng, or Shankaracharya, or somebody like that.
— J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
The Zen bard of Cornish, New Hampshire has died, according to his son.
(NOTE: you may have noticed that this site is in the middle of a redesign. It’s live, though not quite ready yet. I’ll post more about this as soon as I fix a few more things).
2 Responses
I like the fact that you put
I like the fact that you put the cover of Franny and Zoey up instead of Catcher. Catcher was great and all, but so was his other work too.
Along with Hemingway, Steinbeck and John Knowles, Salinger really opened up my eyes to the world, as an adolescent.
I’ve always been proud of the fact that Salinger and I share the same birthday. Good thing we’re not sharing the same deathday!
Now that he’s gone, maybe we’ll see those 15 rumored unpublished manuscripts and perhaps a movie of Catcher?
Granted that D Salinger had a
Granted that D Salinger had a long life– 91 years is a pretty good run, and at that age it’s bound to happen sooner or later. There’s still a bunch of unpublished works of his still left – a lot of people would give more than payday loans to get it published, that’s for sure. Catcher in the Rye is still a classic, despite its controversy, and Holden Caufield will remain one of the most essential characters of American Literature.