from J. D.

"Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them--if you want to. Just as some day, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry."

~ J. D. Salinger ~

Goodbye, Salinger

 RIP :: J. D. Salinger

J. D. Salinger passed away yesterday. You can read more here. Salinger wrote the famous Catcher in the Rye, which is another one of those books I know I should have read by now, and haven't. It's been on The List for several years. What's crazy is that Salinger published Catcher in the Rye in 1951 when he was 32. It was immediately popular and is widely acclaimed as an influential modern novel. He never published another novel. Other published works by Salinger are:

• Nine Stories (a short story collection)
• Franny and Zooey (a collection of a novella and a short story)
• Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (two novellas)
• Hapworth 16, 1924 (a novella that appeared in The New Yorker)

Salinger was known for being reclusive, and hasn't given an interview or other public appearance in over twenty years. I have always envisioned him as a man who had one goal. His goal was to publish a novel. He did it. And that was that. Why write another one?

Whether or not that's true, who is to say? I have often wondered, though, what else the great writer may have been capable of...