How J.D. Salinger Will Be

While students filed into desk chairs and discussed The Catcher in the Rye for the past 50 years, J.D. Salinger remained cloistered in his Cornish, New Hampshire estate working on… well no one’s really sure. There are hopes and even expectations among his fans and followers that the reclusive author never put down his pen. Perhaps a sequel to Catcher or more tales about the beloved Glass family were being edited and refined for this moment. All sorts of rumors have circulated recently about the extent of Salinger’s unpublished works, or simply if there was anything to be released posthumously. And while the excitement is certainly warranted, are we sure that we’d want to rush out and buy the latest installment of Holden’s adventures?

Catcher holds a distinct place in the American literary canon, and part of its esteemed reputation comes from the fact that the author didn’t find it necessary to follow the masterpiece with an encore. Salinger wrote many short stories and even novella length works which sated eager readers’ appetites following Catcher’s publication, but continued public demand for his work met with silence when he all but disappeared from the literary scene in 1965. His infamous withdrawal is complicated by the fact that so few other writers have been as highly regarded in their lifetime as Salinger. Yet it seemed the more the public wanted of him, the further he retreated. And though there have been intermittent speculations that indeed Mr. Salinger continued to write since his departure from the publishing world, it’s hard to believe that his work could approach the hype which has been building for over 40 years.

Salinger’s seclusion adds an element of realism to his work that would otherwise be missing had he made public appearances during his lifetime. He represents the archetypal image of a brilliant “madman” toiling away in his secluded residence. Salinger’s persona (or lack thereof) only furthers the fascination which draws readers to Holden Caulfield in the first place. Holden’s self-imposed alienation from the other students at Pencey Prep and his loathing of both friends and strangers in New York ring true for many who’ve felt displaced from their own environment. The almost universal sentiment of being an outsider transcends generations, and Salinger’s personal retirement from professional writing bolsters the authenticity of the themes at work in his most famous novel. Salinger not only espoused counter cultural attitudes in his character, he went a step further by living them out.

Following Salinger’s death there may be a temptation to transform him into a celebrated martyr of sorts for those who choose to disengage from society (à la Chris McCandless and Into the Wild), but it’s doubtful that’s what he intended. Towards the end of Catcher Holden visits his former English teacher, Mr. Antolini, who cautions him that he is headed toward a breakdown. In an attempt to prompt Holden to consider his actions, Mr. Antolini invokes the Austrian psychologist Wilhelm Stekel: “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one”. Although it’s dangerous to draw too many parallels between the artist and his work, the quote strikes one as a possible explanation for Salinger’s own modesty. It’s hard to say what his intention was for avoiding public life at all costs, but it was most certainly purposeful. There are several episodes which illustrate his conscious dissociation from the surrounding world including lawsuits against individuals trying to solicit a quote from him, and refusals to a number of directors, namely Steven Spielberg, seeking to adapt Catcher into film.

At this point Salinger has developed an aura with readers and scholars for being the writer who sacrificed a public life for his art. And though he may not have a choice in whether his unpublished writings become available, for the sake of his position in American literary lore we ought to leave his body of work untouched. Like Hemingway’s bravado, Fitzgerald’s devotion to his crazed wife, or Faulkner’s penchant for the drink, authors have a tendency to become mythological characters themselves; and Salinger is no exception. His isolation and adamant insistence that his work be preserved in its original form sends a message that he understood there was a demand for him to return, but whether out of stubbornness or devotion to an ideal, he declined. And while many fans have waited to find what Salinger may have left behind, we may be better served if there is no epilogue to his story. His reclusive life creates a dimension of meaning in his work which would be undermined if additional writings were to be released.