J.D. Salinger and Howard Zinn, RIP
Two great men passed away this week, and I think it fitting to make note of their deaths.
Jerome David (better known as "J.D") Salinger passed away on Wednesday, January 27th, at the age of 91 years old. He died of natural causes according to reports, in no pain or ill health.
Salinger is known for his novel Catcher in the Rye, but the man lived a very interesting life. He was born in Manhattan, had gone to Austria to learn the meat exporting business, and left just before the Nazi annexation of the country (Salinger's father was Jewish and he was raised in a Jewish home).
Coming back to the States he began writing. He had his first story published in 1940, a short story called The Young Folks. He continued writing up to his draft into the army to fight in World War II. He was on Utah Beach on D-Day, in the Battle of the Bulge, and was among the first U.S. servicemen to liberate a concentration camp.
After the War, he returned to the States and continued his writing career, publishing short stories in the New Yorker and creating the fictional Glasses family, writing several stories about this odd clan consisting of two retired Vaudeville actors and their children. A movie version of one of his stories, Uncle Wiggly In Connecticut, was made, retitled My Foolish Heart, and was blasted by critics. Salinger refused to ever let another one of his stories become a movie after that fiasco.
In 1951 he published his seminal work, The Catcher in the Rye, which met with both lavish praise and utter consternation. Rye continues to be one of the most taught -- and most banned --- books in English and literature classrooms throughout the United States, only Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men being more popular with teachers. He published a few more novels and stories, his last story being "Hapsworth 16, 1924," the last of the Glass family series.
After the publication of "Hapsworth," Salinger decided to not publish any further works, and to his death never sent another story for publication, although according to family members he continued to write nearly daily.
Salinger was a curious person. He was obviously looking for some kind of meaning in life that eluded him. Over the course of years he experimented with various religions such as Zen Buddhism, Vedanta Hinduism, Kriya Yoga, Scientology, the teachings of Edgar Cayce, and Christian Science, along with various other esoteric forms of spirituality. After the publication of Catcher in the Rye he became a recluse up in Cornish, New Hampshire, staying mostly in his house and making few appearances in town. He gave his last interview in 1980, and continued to live a rather hermit like lifestyle to his death from natural causes.
Salinger definitely was a polarizing figure as far as his literary works. Catcher remains to this day a controversial book, due to its use of foul language and sexual situations. This has put it high on the 'banned' list of books in many U.S. schools, along with Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and the entire Harry Potter series (you can decide if those books should all be named in the same august tones). Although he served honorably in WW II, he is better remembered for his banned book, his quirky lifestyle, and his spiritual path that seems odd to many mainstream religious folks.
I read Catcher in high school, but not at the behest of my teachers. I had heard this was a controversial book and wanted to see what all the hubbub was about, as my teachers were not assigning it (we did have to read East of Eden, and I nearly went mad trying to read that one.) To this day I don't see what is so horrid about it that would merit banning, but then again, as I was a sort of goth/rock teen, wearing way too much black eyeliner, lots of black, white and red clothes, and excessive aqua net, it may be I couldn't get what conformist society was so upset about.
Another famous, and rather controversial, person who died this week was history professor Howard Zinn, aged 87. Zinn was also born of a immigrant Jewish family, served in World War II, and then went on to gain a PhD in history from Colombia University in New York. Zinn became a voice in the New Left and the Civil Rights movement. He was dismissed from his position at Spelmen College (a female Black College in Atlanta, Georgia) for supporting his students in their desire for social change.
Zinn was active in the anti-war movement during Vietnam, supporting the group Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and was also very much against the invasion and occupation of Iraq, writing several books on that subject. During the war in Vietnam, he went on a diplomatic mission to Hanoi in 1968, in the midst of the Tet Offensive, to secure the release of three American airmen that were being held as POWs by the North Vietnamese.
His most famous work, however, is A People's History of the United States, an "alternative history" book that uses first person sources to describe injustices from the time of Columbus to the present day. In A People's History, the voices of slaves, the common folk during the Revolution and the Civil War, the immigrants who toiled in the American West, and those that built up the cities of the East are all heard, usually for the first time to readers. Zinn said it was not intended to be an "orthodox" history, but to help fill in the gaps that such "orthodox" history books leave. It is widely used in high school and college history classes in the United States.
I read Dr. Zinn's book when I was in college. A sociology professor assigned it to us in a social stratification class I took, using it to talk about class differences and the life chances that are given to different classes. It really stirred my mind and imagination as a young person in my 20s, and it challenged many preconceptions of history we are given. Dr. Zinn really stirred my critical thinking skills, and my interest in critical pedagogy largely stems from reading A People's History.
Dr. Zinn died of a heart attack on the same day Mr. Salinger passed away. Two great men, with some similarities and glaring differences, that gave in their own way a great deal to the fabric of American society. Wherever you are now, Gentlemen, I salute you, and thank you for your work in both the military and in your respective fields.
*raises glass in toast*
--V, 1/29/2010