Library Stuff

NYT – “To the list of things that J.D. Salinger found hard to bear, we can now add these: pompous graduation ceremonies and shlepping overseas to see tulips. “I’ve been going to graduations, and there isn’t much that I find more pretentious or irksome than the sight of ‘faculty’ and graduates in their academic get-ups,’’ he wrote a friend in June 1982, mentioning that it took self-control at one point “not to gag.”

NYT – “The letters, a total of 11, were written between 1951 and 1993, from one buddy, or “Buddyroo,” to another. In sharp and familiar prose, laced with humor and biting wit, the writer gives an intimate peek into his life and thoughts at precise moments in time. Read so many years later, they are filled with surprises.”

More here

Richard Grenell – “I remember hearing about a controversial book when I was in 7th Grade. There was talk of banning the book from the high school reading list and even some discussions about taking it off the library shelf. Very few teachers or leaders in my small Michigan community ever discussed the issue of The Catcher in the Rye and certainly no one came to the 1951 Novel’s defense.”

See also, Author J.D. Salinger ‘doesn’t go out of style’, from USA Today

From the NYT.

Plus, an interactive map.

Stephen King – “I wasn’t a huge Salinger fan, but I’m sorry to hear of his passing — the way you’d feel if you heard an eccentric, short-tempered, but often fascinating uncle had passed away.”