It told the story of Holden Caulfield, a 17-year-old guy, wandering the streets of New York City after being expelled from his private school. Holden has lost his innocence and feels alienated from an adult world that he really doesn’t want to be part of. He is concerned about protecting the innocence of his beloved little sister Phoebe and other youngsters. He finds that final step into adulthood very frightening. I was 19 when I first read the book and wandering the hills of West Virginia, but I understood and identified with Holden completely.
Evidently, so did a lot of other guys. The book shot to the top of the bestseller lists. After the first surge, sales slacked off a bit and then picked up again. “It became the book that every brooding adolescent male has to buy,” one critic wrote. Seemingly, it still is. Since its publication in 1951, it has sold more than 60 million copies, and still sells about 250,000 every year.
At first, “Catcher” was banned from many school libraries and some public libraries because of coarse language (fairly mild by today’s standards). Today, it is second only to John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” among novels most commonly taught in public schools.
The book’s success is even more surprising because it was achieved as a book, not bolstered by being made into a popular movie, play or TV series. A host of famous movie makers have sought the movie rights to “Catcher,” including Samuel Goldwyn and Steven Spielberg, but Salinger tuned them all down.
Holden was 17, but Jerome David Salinger was 30 when he wrote the book and had already taken that fatal step into adulthood by fighting in World War II. He was drafted into the army in 1941 and saw action as an infantryman at Utah Beac h on D-Day and during the Battle of the Bulge.
“Catcher” was Salinger’s only novel, but he wrote short stories for the New Yorker magazine. When I was in college word got out quickly when a Salinger story was in an issue of the New Yorker and the local newsstand quickly sold out of the magazine. He also wrote a couple of novellas, but none of his later work hit the best seller lists. He last published an original work in 1965. He would have to be classified as a “cult author,” who built a cadre of loyal fans from the success of his first novel.
That first success also brought Salinger into the bright glare of public attention, and he didn’t like it. He moved from his native Manhattan to the house in Norwich, New Hampshire, where he died, and became increasingly reclusive.
Because of Salinger’s strenuous efforts to protect his privacy, relatively little is known about his later life. He was briefly married to a German woman during his war years. He was married twice more, having two children, Margaret and Matthew, with his second wife. He also had other romantic affairs. Perhaps we, his loyal fans, should be grateful that he protected us from tawdry gossip about his private life, just as he avoided Holden becoming the hero of some sappy TV series.
Almost all of the reports that have trickled out of New Hampshire indicate that Salinger continued to write. His fans have always believed he was up in New Hampshire crafting The Great American Novel. If so, we’ll find out because any manuscripts he left behind would be worth millions.
The family announced that there would be no funeral services. That seems appropriate.
Holden said: “Who wants flowers when they’re dead? Nobody.”
Glenn Sumpter is a former editor of the Richmond County Daily Journal.
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