While personally, I am not a Twilight / New Moon expert, I *am* well-versed in a few areas of arcane knowledge which have popped up on my radar while covering Robert, Kristen, Taylor etc.
These topics include the band Minor Threat (the band on the t-shirt Kristen was wearing at Comic Con) … and the subsequent follow-up band, Fugazi who I saw in their hometown of Washington DC years back while on a roadtrip in my VW bus … but I digress.
In this case, I was inspired by a post called called: What is Robert Pattinson reading?, on the blog called: Thinking of Rob. The author (FakerParis I assume) spotted a book in Robert’s hand while disembarking from a flight in NYC. While a fan hugged all up over him, a co-conspirator snapped the contents of his pocket – Nine Stories by JD Salinger – the author of the (somewhat notorious and occasionally banned) classic Catcher in the Rye.
PS I’d give credit to photographer if I knew who she/he is.
Here’s the a snippet from the post:
“I first thought he was reading Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Upon closer look he’s reading Nine Stories by the same author.”
So, consider class in session. Here’s a dossier on stuff I know about Jerome David Salinger and his literary work:
1) Salinger hates movies – he’s been approached by director’s from Steven Spielberg on down but refused every offer. He does not hold his tongue in his classic Catcher in the Rye as the erstwhile protagonist puts forth:
2) Salinger is a recluse – the last interview he gave was to a high school newspaper in his hometown in 1956. His books are published without a photo or decorative cover art (though the Catcher in the Rye Reader’s Digest edition has a photo but was immediately recalled and now very rare (I own one ;-)).
3) Salinger will sue you – really. Ask Ian Hamilton who wrote a Salinger biography which was pared down after weeks of court hearings, ask anyone who dares quote more than a paragraph of his holy words of alienation and discontent! Or don’t try to publish any fan fiction either (from NYTimes):
“In a victory for the reclusive writer J. D. Salinger, a federal judge on Wednesday indefinitely banned publication in the United States of a new book by a Swedish author that contains a 76-year-old version of Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of “The Catcher in the Rye.”
The judge, Deborah A. Batts, of United States District Court in Manhattan, had granted a 10-day temporary restraining order last month against the author, Fredrik Colting, who wrote the new novel under the pen name John David California.
In a 37-page ruling, Judge Batts issued a preliminary injunction — indefinitely barring the publication, advertising or distribution of the book in this country — after considering the merits of the case. The book has been published in Britain.”
4) Salinger was an interrogation officer in WW2 - some suggest this experience scarred him significantly as evidenced in one of the stories in Nine Stories called For Esme with Love and Squalor about an encounter at a cafe between Sergeant X and a young girl.
The next thing I knew, the young lady was standing, with enviable poise, beside my table. She was wearing a tartan dress–a Campbell tartan, I believe. It seemed to me to be a wonderful dress for a very young girl to be wearing on a rainy, rainy day. “I thought Americans despised tea,” she said.
It wasn’t the observation of a smart aleck but that of a truth-lover or a statistics-lover. I replied that some of us never drank anything but tea. I asked her if she’d care to join me.
“Thank you,” she said. “Perhaps for just a fraction of a moment.”
I got up and drew a chair for her, the one opposite me, and she sat down on the forward quarter of it, keeping her spine easily and beautifully straight. I went back–almost hurried back–to my own chair, more than willing to hold up my end of a conversation. When I was seated, I couldn’t think of anything to say, though. I smiled again, still keeping my coal-black filling under concealment. I remarked that it was certainly a terrible day out.
5) Salinger only published two other books beside the Nine Stories and Catcher - “Franny and Zooey” and “Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters!” There are unauthorized “under-published” stories which float around the literary underground. No one knows (but many speculate) about whether he writes or not in a cinder brink “bunker” on his land in Cornish, New Hampshire – Remember … NO Visitors Welcome!
More Salinger:
In Vancouver with Salinger and disc golf hi-jinx – Postcard #11 (audio podcast)
J.D. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly
By the 1960s, amid the growing independence of teenagers and their search for meaning in their lives, Salinger’s story of 16-year-old Holden Caufield and his Christmas season jaunt in 1940s Manhattan seemed even more relevant than it had been in 1951. Sales grew rapidly as teenagers began reading the novel not only to satisfy class requirements (the book proved ideal for teachers seeking to connect their students with literature), but also as a source of answers, guidance, and inspiration in their own lives. Amid the war in Vietnam and a burgeoning counter-culture, even adults who found themselves perplexed by the younger generation began referring to the novel in new and immediate terms. This made Salinger a vastly popular and influential literary presence in a decade in which he published very little new work. Indeed, his output had slowed down considerably by the ’60s, and he became known principally through his works of the 1940s and ’50s, particularly The Catcher in the Rye and the anthologies that had been assembled of his shorter works, such as Nine Stories and Franny and Zooey. The man, himself, however, was (and remained) a mystery, which, apparently, is how he had always wanted it. Even when his stories began appearing in print in the early ’40s, Salinger did not allow his editors to include any information about him, ostensibly because he didn’t want any personal details to distract the reader from the writing. By all accounts, the author’s desire for privacy only increased in the decades to follow. Salinger pursued several legal avenues to preserve it, and specifically tried to prevent the publication of letters that he had written to others. The demand for his work was such that, in 1974, an enterprising pirate had published two volumes of The Uncollected Short Stories of J.D. Salinger, made up of several short works (principally from the early ’40s) that the author had chosen not to include in his official anthologies. Both volumes were quickly suppressed by legal action, but, as late as 1988, they could still be found (albeit with difficulty) on the collector’s market, costing several hundred dollars each and handled under the strictest security.
