Salinger's 4th Yahrtzeit Approaching

On January 27th to be exact.

Which is 1/27.

For those of you who have followed my antics here, you might recall my fondness for the number 127.

Here's one time I mention it.

Here's another, earlier, time I mention it.

It's a lucky number for my mother.
Her first name is Sarah.
127 is the age when our biblical matriarch Sarah passed away.
It's the number when you add up its digits gets to 10.
And who doesn't love a perfect 10.

So, why is it that I missed that Salinger passed away on 1/27?
Read about my fascination with Salinger books.

J.D. Salinger drawing that appeared on the cover of Time Magazine

I just finished watching the Salinger documentary from last year
All Americans should see this.
We all loved and love Catcher in the Rye.
You may think I am biased, since my college advisor and favorite professor, Stephen J. Whitfield, appears as a commentator in the film.
But I loved this movie even before I saw him in it.
No, I didn't know he was in it.

I do believe strongly that the sporadic release of Salinger's remaining works from 2015-2020, as noted by the film, will play a strong role in creating positive energy in the world.

It is a good thing!

There is no doubt in my mind that larger questions of religion and God existed for Salinger.  His Glass family practices a religion, after all.  Seymour commits suicide.  Salinger's father was Jewish and he helped to liberate the camps.  He served as a counterintelligence officer soon after the war.  He tried catching Nazis.  He married a former Nazi and soon divorced her.  I wish I could have had Jerry Salinger over for a shabbes dinner at our house.  I think he would have liked my challah.  I hope he would have had fun.  I just had some popcorn with brewer's yeast on it.  Good stuff.  But what about warm chocolate babka?  That would be good, too.

Forget about the music I love affecting so many Americans for the good.  (for the moment, at least!)

J.D. Salinger's books affected so many Americans for the good.

And, disturbingly, as noted in the film, they affected not just one but 3 Americans for the bad in their assassinations or attempted assassinations of famous people.   That concerns me but as Salinger said to his fans, he isn't a therapist.  He did good for the world by writing what he wrote.  And it will be so exciting to read the rest of his goods in the next decade.  The Glass and Caulfield families will finally rise to their fullest potentials in American literature.

I imagine little Suzy Greenberg, a girl who said she wants to be a sociologist but it was suggested she should get checked by a neurologist, must've read Catcher and related to Holden just as much as the next girl.


I loved reading about the Glass children (was it Franny or Zooey?) when we lived in New Haven, envisioning myself on the very platform I used to ascend when I commuted to Manhattan from there in 2003.

Thanks, Mr. Salinger.
This blog post comes from a good place and the best of intentions.
I only claim to be an ideas person who wants good in the world.

On Purging, Winona Ryder and J.D. Salinger

Many years ago I was terribly impressed upon reading about Winona Ryder's habit of collecting old copies of Catcher in the Rye that I decided I wanted to do the same.  Of course I loved Holden Caulfield just as much as the next gal, but I never thought of the Winona's very clever idea of collecting them.  Since I always had great respect for her work and style, this seemed like a great idea.  Not that I didn't trust my memory, but of course I did my online research about this topic, and indeed she spoke a few years ago about how many of her old interviews referenced J.D. Salinger.  My desire to collect them, though, ended up growing to a few other titles, as I grew to love Salinger dearly the more I read him.  In the mid '00s when Stango and I lived in New Haven, the city where I birthed Concealed Light and the Wolfman, I would envision myself in the 1950s waiting on the train platform in New Haven, as was detailed in a different seminal Salinger book Franny and Zooey.  Girl can dream.

Then reality struck:  it wasn't so easy in the mid 90s to simply pick up used editions of Catcher in the Rye anywhere in the northeast.  Sure I had the time as a single working woman, but visits to bookstores in Cambridge, Providence and New York City were all quickly visits in vain.  Ithaca?  Maybe.  Toronto, Burlington and the Berkshires were better scouting sites.

I write all of this because while Concealed Light was away at camp in July I managed to purge out lots of unneeded items from clothing to toys to books.  I believe at least 10 bags of stuff were donated.  Probably will regret one or two of them, but in keeping with Miesian minimalism of less is more to which I strive, I was happy to see it all go.

But not my Salingers.

They stay.

my 2 paperbacks and a hard copy of Catcher in The Rye

Funny thing about the original reader of this book I purchased in a used book store probably in the Berkshires is that I knew David Barash!  Nice guy.  I think I told him once that I had his high school copy.

  

Do I care that there is fraying on the binding?

From my hardcopy of Catcher in the Rye:  not a first edition but I imagine this was published for a book club or library edition.  Still a pretty good find for minimal money:  I could not afford to spend more than $15

So, the hardback isn't in great condition.  I don't care!

Worthy reads in their own right.   Did Wes Anderson study the Glass family and contemporize them in his various films?  

My Salinger collection as a whole.  I know, this is a modest collection.  We're not talking to Sotheby's, people!