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An Introduction
On the Upper East Side of Manhattan, among the valleys of self-satisfied apartment buildings that bastion the rich and famous of New York, exists an unnoted yet sublime coincidence of addresses. The homes of the city's two foremost authors, its most beloved literary sons since the days of Walt Whitman, still stand within earshot of eachother on a rare quiet day.
After joining the Army during the First World War, as much to avoid his failing grades as to serve, F. Scott Fitzgerald arrived in the city in February 1919, settling into an apartment at 1395 Lexington Avenue and Ninety Second Street. Unknown to the struggling writer, little more than a month before, the man destined to one day assume his literary mantle had just been born in New York's Nursery and Child's Hospital.
Today, if walking south from Fitzgerald's residence, after rounding the corner onto Ninety First Street and traveling west toward Central Park, a sixteen-story apartment building rises directly into view. Constructed three years after Fitzgerald moved from the island, 1133 stands dominant on the corner of Park Avenue, the proud former home of author J.D. Salinger, the child born that New Year's Day of 1919, who like Fitzgerald himself, would come to epitomize not just the city his writings portrayed, but the consciousness of an entire age.
Fitzgerald would die without ever hearing the name of J.D. Salinger, but Salinger would conduct much of his life in imitation of the author he came to emulate, striving to equal, indeed to surpass, the literary heights Fitzgerald had attained. In doing so, he would give voice to his own generation, surfacing their hidden anxieties while revealing the limitlessness of their possibilities.
In the end, Salinger would abandon Fitzgerald's path in favor of his own direction, a unique journey in denial of material values and one taunted by sorrows common to those who choose to walk alone. Yet, the core of each artist remained the same and the greatest triumphs of both were tied to their deepest vulnerabilities. In an unwitting self-confession to Ernest Hemingway, J.D. Salinger once commented of Scott Fitzgerald, as he could well have observed of himself: "His craftsmanship, or his beauty, was only applicable to his weaknesses."
After the enormous success of The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger spurned the limelight and entered seclusion. To compound the mystery that now surrounded him, in 1965 he ceased publication. As a consequence, his name has become synonymous with reclusion in the American psyche - something akin to urban legend. Unfortunately, the fascination with the man himself has long competed with appreciation for his work.
It is not our intention here to speculate as to the justice or rationale behind J.D. Salinger's seclusion. Nor do we feel it profitable to the reader to draw correlation between the life and personality of the author and the lives and personalities of his characters. To do so is not only a distraction, but a potential hazard to the personal impact of his stories upon the reader. Those traits of J.D. Salinger which most motivate his stories are not traits which are unique to the author, but traits which are shared by us all.
Being respectful of his privacy, we must separate the personal life of the author from his works which, once published, become an inalienable thread in the fabric of American literature.
However, we would be unfair not to point out certain aspects of the author's life which weigh heavily upon his works by impacting their appearance in time.
J.D. Salinger indeed led an amazing life. By the time that he was thirty-two he had befriended and knew personally some of the most famous names of the twentieth century. oddly, these associations were seldom due to any status of Salinger as an author, but rather, to some involuntary twist of fate. By the time that he was thirty-two, he had participated in some of the most pivotal events of human history. He had stayed at length in both Austria and Poland in 1938, on the eve of their invasions by the Nazis. He stormed the beaches at Normandy on D-Day. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He was in Paris on the day of it's liberation. And he personally witnessed the unspeakable horrors of the Dachau concentration camp system. By the time that he was thirty-two, he had not only written a phenomenal best selling novel, but a classic of American literature.
At thirty-two JD Salinger turned his back on it all.
The fascination people have with his decision to withdraw has not lessened with time. We cannot know why he chose to make this decision. But we can know why he did not. JD Salinger did not choose to withdraw from scrutiny because it was easy. The protection of his privacy has been a struggle that most of us can only begin to imagine. Throughout the years of his seclusion, a ceaseless stream of admirers and the curious have relentlessly attempted to descend upon him without regard to his wishes. By doing so, they have strengthened the author's resolve to remain in anonymity, as the desire for privacy becomes more precious to him as it becomes more difficult to secure.
If the writings of J.D. Salinger have taught us anything, they have taught us the appreciation of human individuality. Aside from using these lessons in our own lives, we can best use them in regards to the author who taught us these lessons so eloquently.
We can allow J.D. Salinger the exercise of his personal liberty.
Further Notes From the Underground
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There are many urban myths regarding JD Salinger. Most of them we have chosen to ignore. However, one legend is so compelling that it forces recognition. During 1970 and 1971, a small Massachusetts periodical named The Phoenix received a number of letters and log entries from a mysterious author calling himself Giles Weaver. There have been numerous speculations that the author of these letters was actually JD Salinger. Is Giles Weaver actually Salinger? We are convinced that he is not. Regardless of conclusions, they are a fascinating footnote and make for an excellent read.
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Early Writings : "Musings of a Social Soph"
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Here we provide a collection of Salinger's miscellaneous writings, including his contributions to the Ursinus College newspaper. Entitled "Musings of a Social Soph: The Skipped Diploma".
The collection also includes dust jacket notes from his various books and an editorial to the New York Post entitled "Man-Forsaken Men".
The collection can be viewed as a Web page or downloaded as a Word document.
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