RIP J.D. Salinger

JD Salinger

“Boy, when you’re dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.”

J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Ch. 20

J.D. Salinger has passed away today at the age of 91. RIP, Mr. Salinger. We hardly knew you, but you seemed to know us pretty well.

Posted by Kevin K. on 01/28/10 at 01:34 PM • Permalink

Categories: I Don't Know Much About Art, But I Know What I Like • News •

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And so begins the mad scramble to secure the film rights to Catcher in the Rye.

Comment by jeffinfremont on 01/28/10 at 01:47 PM

We hardly knew you, but you seemed to know us pretty well.

Well said.

Comment by Betty Cracker on 01/28/10 at 01:57 PM

I just saw that he died in the headlines on my home page. I remember Catcher in the Rye was one of those books they made you read in school and then it turned out to be so good you could hardly believe it.

Comment by marindenver on 01/28/10 at 02:04 PM

I just put the end of “For Esme, With Love and Squalor,” on my FB page:

You take a really sleepy man, Esme, and he always stands a chance of again becoming a man with all his fac—with all his f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s intact.

Comment by Oblomova on 01/28/10 at 03:15 PM

Go ahead and hate me, but I’ve never read Salinger.

I may be the only one, and I hope to correct the oversight soon. Somehow, I got sucked into the whole German bildungsroman thing, and totally sidestepped the American growing-up mythos. Story of my life (no pun intended).

A giant, though, without doubt…and this is a sad day.

Comment by StrangeAppar8us on 01/28/10 at 03:19 PM

Best tweet I saw today:

Death of Howard Zinn eclipsed by death of J.D. Salinger. Ironically, J.D. Salinger would hate that

Comment by jeffinfremont on 01/28/10 at 03:58 PM

I came out, (well, at least to myself) when I read this in high school. RIP.

Comment by Jamie on 01/28/10 at 06:50 PM

Glad I never gave in to the temptation to drive up to Cornish, NH and visit him. Part of me wanted to, but to do so would have been psychotic and selfish and an invasion of his privacy.