All the folks in
Cornish, New Hampshire protected him from prying eyes and eager grad students.
J.D. Salinger lived there peacefully until he died last week amid his papers
and letters—none of which were published after his one and only foray into
literary fame: The Catcher in the Rye. Apparently once a young man did get past
the vigilant postmistress to ask Salinger about something he wanted to write
about (or maybe it was to make a film) and the old man’s response
was: “Do your own book.” The young
man called out to Salinger’s retreating back, “Can we stay in touch?” to which
he heard, “Whatever for?”
His famous title, one
story goes, was based on a mis-hearing of the famous Scottish song. “Comin’
through the rye,” became “catcher in the rye.” When a body meets a body,
there’s always room for misinterpretation. And when a body meets a book, well,
anything can happen.
My friend Julia found a
signed paperback of Updike’s in a local thrift shop once. She sold it on e-bay,
but I’m guessing now that he’s dead, it’s worth a whole lot more than she got
for it. It keeps me browsing thrift shops, I can assure you. (Julia also is one
of the few people I know with her own copy of Jung’s Red Book. You can tell I’m
envious in several ways.)
Our whole family has enjoyed
reading the John Dunning series about Cliff Janeway’s rare book pursuits. And
now Allison Hoover Bartlett’s written a great read called The Man Who Loved
Books Too Much. (2009, Riverhead Books). Besides telling a compelling story
about antiquarian thefts, you learn a lot from her chapter notes.
For instance:
In the early 19th
century a scholar went into a German fish shop only to find the shop keeper tearing out
Bible pages to wrap fish in. A Guttenberg Bible.
The oldest and most
famous rare book school is at the University of Virginia.
People think Lewis
Carroll invented the dust jacket. This is because his 1876 The
Hunting of the Snark is one of the earliest books with jackets that still
exists. But Bartlett says earlier books from the 1830s with jackets are still
around.
No time for more. I have to get back to
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much. Something’s coming through the rye! I
just know it.







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