Farewell J.D. Salinger

The author J.D. Salinger died yesterday at the ripe old age of 91. In addition to being one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century, he was also one of the top five recluses of all time. In fact, he may be number one. Who's ever been more reclusive than J.D. Salinger? He was such a legendary hermit that he was once used as a plot device on a very mediocre NBC sitcom. On an episode of "The Single Guy", Ernest Borgnine's lovable bellhop was roped into pretending to be J.D. Salinger to impress one of Jonathan Silverman's dates. Nobody's seen this guy in 50 years, how can they prove it's not him? Get it?

I'm hoping that in all of the soon to be published Salinger tributes that I'll be the only one to mention this pop culture gem. But in all seriousness, Salinger's desire to be out of the public eye has generated almost as much discussion as his small body of published work. A fascinating example of this came when British author Ian Hamilton attempted to write and publish a serious biography of Salinger. The book begins with Hamilton's repeated attempts to contact the man which resulted in him...receiving an ACTUAL LETTER from Salinger himself! The letter essentially said that he supposed he couldn't stop Hamilton from writing a book about him, but that he wished he wouldn't. Taking this to mean that he wouldn't be sued, Hamilton moved forward, only to have Salinger emerge from seclusion to...that's right, sue to stop publication. The book ended up being published in a different form, and Hamilton's account of the lawsuit really ends up being the highlight. You can find it on Amazon, and I would say it's required reading for any true Salinger fan.

All of that aside, I have been and continue to be a real lover of Salinger's work, and if any posthumous works emerge, you can bet I'll be first in line to buy them. In the meantime, all of Salinger's New Yorker short stories can be accessed (for a fee) at

www.newyorker.com

This includes "Hapworth 16, 1924", from 1965. This was Salinger's last published story and was also the one that the writer very nearly published in book form several years ago, only to pull the plug at the last minute.