J. D. Salinger is dead at 91. After achieving spectacular success with Catcher in the Rye and a handful of other brief novels and short stories in the 1950s, Salinger renounced his celebrity and became a recluse for the rest of his life. And yet, word is that Salinger may have kept writing and that his safe may contain as many as 15 completed manuscripts.
“There is a marvelous peace in not publishing,” he told The New York Times in 1974. “Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.”
via What’s in Salinger’s safe? | Books | Entertainment | Toronto Sun.
To me, Catcher in the Rye is over-rated, but his best book is Franny & Zooey, which centers upon a young woman fixated on praying the ancient “Jesus prayer”: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
Go here for a splendid passage about Christ in the neighbor from Franny & Zooey.
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