January 1st, 1919 Happy Birthday to the worlds favorite recluse, J.D. Salinger The famously-secretive author rose to prominence in the 1950s for The Catcher in the Rye, a book that has resonated with every generation of youth since. He is more celebrated in literary circles for his shorter stories, many of which centered on the Glass and Caulfield families and explored deeper religious and philosophical territory than his sole novel. Want to know more about the man of whom we know so little? There is a world of insight within his written works. Heres detailed instruction on becoming a truly obsessed fan: Start with the easy-to-locate books, then move on the the more-obscure stories. Salinger published just 36 stories in the course of his career. Of these, 14 are easy to obtain: One novel and 13 short stories published in three books. Go to any library or bookstore and you will find these four books easily. I suggest the following order for those who are just (re)discovering Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye Nine Stories Franny and Zooey Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction This will give you a good overview of the best-known Salinger stories, and most folks can probably stop here. If youre really interested in Salengeria even after this, I suggest going after the remaining 22 underpublished stories. These are much tougher to find, but can be rewarding and enjoyable to readers of any level. Seven of these underpublished stories (indicated at right in italics) were republished in books, though even these can be difficult to locate. But the remaining 15 are much more difficult to find. I suggest the following strategy: Locate a copy of Wonderful Town: New York Stories from the New Yorker or The Complete New Yorker and look up Slight Rebellion Off Madison. Its a great story, and its relationship to The Catcher in the Rye will be especially rewarding. If you are looking through The Complete New Yorker, you should look for Hapworth 16,1924, as well. Find a copy of the July/August 2010 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, which contains the excellent A Boy in France. A very good library may also have a copy of Best American Short Stories of 1949, which includes A Girl I Knew, and The Armchair Esquire, with This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise. Both are excellent stories! Many libraries have microfilm copies of The Saturday Evening Post. Locate the following stories (in my order of preference): The Varioni Brothers (July 17 1943) A Boy in France (March 31 1945) (if you didnt find it earlier) Last Day of the Last Furlough (July 15 1944) Both Parties Concerned (February 26 1944) Soft Boiled Sergeant (April 15 1944) Libraries also often have Colliers on microfilm. Look for these stories (again, in my own order or preference): The Stranger (December 1 1945) Im Crazy (December 22 1945) Personal Notes on an Infantryman (December 12 1942) The Hang of It (July 12 1941) Next, ask for back issues of Cosmopolitan. Here youll find The Inverted Forest in the December 1947 issue and Blue Melody from September 1948. Esquire is another one a library might have. Ask for September 1941 for The Heart of a Broken Story and October 1945 for This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise. The May 1947 issue of Mademoiselle is the next stop. It includes A Young Girl in 1941 with No Waist at All which is otherwise difficult to find. If you havent yet found A Girl I Knew in Best American Short Stories of 1949, look for the February 1948 issue of Good Housekeeping. Story magazine is much less common. If you can find back issues, though, look up the following: The Young Folks (March/April 1940) The Long Debut of Lois Taggett (September/October 1942, unless you found Story: The Fiction of The Forties) Once a Week Wont Kill You (November/December 1944) Elaine (March/April 1945) Most of The New Yorker stories were reprinted elsewhere. If you didnt find The Complete New Yorker, look for the December 1946 issue to read Slight Rebellion Off Madison and the June 19, 1965 edition for Hapworth 16, 1924. Kansas Review is easily the most-difficult magazine to locate. Lets hope you can find a copy of Fiction: Form & Experience instead, or youll never get to read Go See Eddie! I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy. - J. D. Salinger Search on, fellow bibliophiles!
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 14:00:00 +0000
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